Ghostly Games
by invisible0one
Summary: Set before the actual Hunger Game series. Danny ends up in the Hunger Games and while he has the secret help of his friends and his own ghostly powers, how can he survive when the whole Ghost Zone is so intent on making him fail?
1. Chapter 1

_This is another random story that I'm not quite sure came from... Let's see how this one goes..._

* * *

**_Chapter One_**

* * *

The sun rose, the bell tower chimed. It could have passed for a normal day if no one knew any better. But while the sun and rest of Mother Nature was allowed to act as if nothing out of the ordinary was a going to happen, the people of the country weren't allowed such a luxury.

Everyone in my house awoke, they were on edge within seconds of remembering what day it was. We all dressed in our best out of forced respect for the day's events, but no one was in much of a mood to even attempt a fake smile. Mom and Dad were breaking down at the possibility of losing me or Jazz. Me and the sister in question were both racked with nerves. What would we do if one of our friends got picked? What would we do if the other were picked? And most importantly, what the hell would we do if we got picked for the horrid "Games"? We couldn't volunteer to save the other, and while I could probably manage to pull off a win, Jazz had almost no hope of survival should she be thrown into the arena.

Saying today was the worst day of the year was the understatement of an understatement. You simply did not start this day with a smile on your face, it was practically taboo. Even celebrating the luck that you're child, friend, or sibling survived the annual reaping was something better left inside one's own head. No one survived the day unscathed.

School was non-existent for the day, and while this would normally make kids jump for joy, today it just reiterated that there was no need for happiness when two people you knew were about to be picked at random and practically thrown into a slaughter house. District 12 was not known for having winners, the kids picked were sentenced to an almost guaranteed death. They didn't even have any mentors to increase the chances of survival. We all hated the Reaping, and we all hated the Games.

The Hunger Games, what a name. The only thing anyone in the capital was hungry for was death and sorrow. Sorrow was exactly what those assholes got as we all made our way from the relative comfort of our shacks to the central square of our district. God, why the hell were the decorations so damn festive? The people in charge had no fucking right to try and force such cheerful decoration onto such a godforsaken day. I took one last look at the shack I called home, there was no guarantee I'd ever see it again in my half-life. I sent up a mental prayer to the heavens that if someone in my family had to be chosen, it would be me. I didn't like the prospect of revealing myself to the world or my family, but as the half-ghost I was I could survive if I really tried to.

The only question was would it be worth surviving if it meant I had to see countless more years of kids sent off to their own graves? 35 years of this shit and no one had been able to put a stop to it. 804 kids dead and no one had stopped the murder. No one in charge had a heart or a soul. I hoped I got the chance to kick the asses of their ghosts in the future, they more than deserved it.

The square was almost full when I got there. There was still a good half hour until the Reaping, but no one was willing to run the risk that they might be late, no one wanted to face the Peacekeepers. I found Sam and Tucker in the crowd; they were looking as dejected as I was. We all had our names in the drawing multiple times, we all had a chance of being picked.

Time crept by, and the few tears that could break past the strong defenses of the population were shed. Some stupidly dressed lady came out and introduced herself, I didn't bother to listen, I barely noticed the ceremony had started until the fake applause of "excitement" had erupted. I scoffed internally. There wasn't one soul in the crowd who was clapping because they wanted to, they were all clapping because they simply wanted to live. I forced myself to focus after the applause died down. I wanted to know which unlucky souls I'd never e seeing again.

"Ladies first." Yeah, yeah. We know. Just call out the damn name already. And do try to contain your excitement, it is your job to send kids to their deaths after all.

She cleared her throat as she read the name on that damned piece of paper. "Rachel McCall." I knew her, she was in the same grade as me. She was short, I doubted she even hit five foot. Her hair was brown and cut off just below her chin. She was more screwed than any other tribute I'd ever known. The only special skill she had was rattling off all the various bullshit that came out of that stupid Bible she carried around. I had no doubt in my mind she'd take that as her trinket, though what she'd do with it I didn't know. Fire fuel was about the only good thing she could use it for.

I heard her parents and younger sisters crying among their own scattered prayers that she'd come home safe. "Come on up here dear." She moved reluctantly, keeping her precious book close to her chest. She was scared shitless, but I didn't really blame her, no one wanted to be sent to their grave. I laughed thinking about all the various acts of the devil she'd end up doing if she wanted to survive. What can I say? She got on my nerves trying to save everyone's soul.

She finally made it up to the platform, but she couldn't find it in herself to speak when the lady in charge of the drawing tried to talk to her. She just stood there staring blankly into the crowd. Though when you put it into perspective of what other tributes had done upon reaching the platform or even hearing their name called, she was doing pretty good.

The lady on stage finally stopped trying to get Rachel to talk and moved over to the next bowl of names. "Now for the gentlemen." Sam was still tensed even though she was safe from the Games this year. There was still a possibility me or Tucker would find ourselves standing on that platform alongside the little Christian girl.

"Daniel Fenton." Well, shit. On the bright side, whatever controlled the universe had listened to me and made me the Fenton family tribute instead of my sister. My mom was hysterical, my dad was barely keeping it together enough to keep her from completely losing it. My sister just stared at me, knowing that I could make it back if I really wanted to, but internally questioned if I deemed my life important enough to reveal my little secret. It was seeing that look on her face before I trudged forward that made me decided that I was coming back, I was going to win these blasted Games. Damn my secret identity, I was going to win.

Sam held on to my hand as long as she could, refusing to believe I'd been chosen. I had to phase myself out of her grasp before I got up on the stage. There were tears in her eyes, tears in the eyes of my family, tears in the eyes of my family, hell, I think even Lancer had a tear in his eye.

I flat out ignored the retarded lady when I got up on stage. The prospect of death didn't get to me, I'd faced it a million times. No, I was simply silent because I didn't feel like giving the damned Capital the pleasure of making me talk. I stared at the little Christian girl beside me on the stage, this was the last time she was going to see her home, even if I had to kill her myself.

The lady on the stage babbled on some incoherent nonsense before ending the ceremony with the same irritating enthusiasm she'd started it with.

"And, always, happy Hunger Games!" Happy? Who the hell thought it was appropriate to put the words 'happy' and 'Hunger Games' in the same sentence?

I suddenly felt rough hands on my shoulders, pushing me into the custody of the Peacekeepers. If it wouldn't get my family hunted down and killed, I would have escaped right then and there, it would have been all too easy for a halfa like me. I walked in silence, as did Rachel. We sat in our separate rooms awaiting out final hour with our friends and family before we'd be thrown into the arena to fight to the death. My parents came, but they could only stay in the room for roughly twenty minutes before they had to leave in order to keep my mom from doing something she'd regret.

Sam and Tucker approached as they left, there something familiar in Tucker's hand, a Fenton Phone. Had anyone else given it to me, I would have thought it a pointless trinket to keep with me. But, because it was from them I knew it was more than just a pointless trinket. Everyone knew of Tucker's obsession with technology, but only me and Sam knew his true skill with it. As long as I could keep the Fenton Phone intact throughout the games, there was no doubt he'd be able to hack into it and communicate with me without getting caught. It was good to know that my friends would be there with me in some form or another. Tucker finally left as Jazz approached me.

"Stay safe, little brother." I smiled back at her familiar words; she'd said them to me several times in the past, usually before a major shitstorm hit.

"Don't worry, Jazz. I will. You know I've faced worse than this. Compared to the evil future alternative of myself, the Games should be a walk in the park." She smiled a little at my attempt at humor.

"Promise me you won't be afraid to use your powers to survive, they're all you've got going for you."

"I promise." We both smiled weakly before Jazz left to comfort our mother. I had five more minutes before I'd be left all alone. Sam was the only person left in the room, the only person who'd been able to keep themselves under enough control to stay with me.

She didn't speak. She just grabbed my hands and pulled me closer. Sam was suddenly up in her toes, trying to get as high up as she could manage. Her lips brushed mine for a fraction of a second before she backed away. I didn't let her get too far from me; I put my hands around her waist and pulled her closer to me before bending down and giving her a real kiss.

I hadn't planned on our meeting ending that way, it just did. I didn't expect her to kiss me or me to kiss her back. Sure, we'd had fake-out make-outs in the past to keep my cover, but this was different. This was the real thing.

She stepped away when the door opened to reveal the Peacekeeper that was going to tear the love of my life out of my arms. "Come back to me Danny." She whispered as she was dragged out the door leaving me utterly alone in the dark room. I clenched the Fenton Phone in my fist as the loneliness settled in. I needed to get home and back to her as soon as I could, there were now so many unanswered questions about what we were. Were we still just best friends, or did she, like myself, want to try taking our relationship to the next level?

My head was still spinning as I boarded the train that would take me and the little Christian girl to the Capital and the Hunger Games.

* * *

_So what do you all think? Love it, hate? Keep going, burn it now?_

_I'd love to hear from you! :D_

_If I keep it going, I do intend on actually finishing it unlike some of the other crossovers I've seen for this._

* * *

_Invisible One_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

* * *

I spent the majority of the train ride watching Rachel for any sign of a hidden special skill, the sooner I found out about any hidden talents the better. I didn't let myself show any sign of weakness, but I did make it a point to remain the same clueless and clumsy guy that everyone knew as Danny Fenton.

We spent the first few hours in the dining cart, having our ears chatted off by the overly excited lady. It only took me a few minutes to find that her name was Hilary. It was such a normal name for someone from the capital that it was almost abnormal. It's funny how your hometown can make even the most average of names sound exquisite to everyone else.

The dining car was filled with expensive things that were there purely for the effect of looking good. I swear the clock on the wall had to have been worth at least as much as my family managed to scrap together in a year, and considering we were on the higher middle class end that was quite a bit. The only reason we weren't some of the richest people in our district was because my parents were constantly putting more money than we really had to spare into their ghost inventions. I did have to thank them for the Fenton Phones they had developed though. I knew the single one I had would look so primitive it wouldn't even work compared to the technology the capital had at their disposal, but knowing Tucker, that was nowhere near the truth. I was willing to bet that as soon as it passed inspection and was allowed into the games it would start rewiring itself into something much more useful.

Me and Rachel watched the rest of the Reaping. There was Star and Tamaki from district one, followed by Rachel and Loki from district two. Three's tributes consisted of Dash and Sarah while four presented Katherine and Raven. Everyone felt a pang of sympathy for the tributes of four, they were siblings and their parents were most likely going to lose both of their only two children. Five brought forth yet another girl named Rachel (I think this was some twisted humor on the part of whatever ran the universe) along with a rather feminine looking boy named David. Six was Samantha and Blake, seven had Jessica and Conner, and eight presented Holly and Andrew. Nine was forced to lose Marlen and Miguel, and ten handed over Elizabeth and Benjamin. Finally, district eleven lost Victoria and Caleb, this got another small pang of sympathy as they were childhood friends. I could already tell the Capital was going to have loads of fun with this year's tributes.

The feed ended and I heard Rachel muttering something about people not coming up with original names. I had to admit it was pretty funny that there were three different Rachels all being thrown into the same arena at once, apparently the universe had a thing against the name. (Somewhere, in a far off land a writer looks up and tries to swear they have nothing against anyone by that name but can't keep the smile off their face…) I had nicknames to keep them all separated in my head within seconds of hearing their last names, it probably came from two years' worth of witty banter practice. The Rachel from district two had the last name of Millaway, thus her nickname became Milkyway. The one from five had the last name of Keesee and became Kazoo in my head. The Rachel from my district kept her standing name of Little Christian Girl, I found it much more fitting than anything else I could come up with.

Day one of training came all too quickly for me, it meant I had less than three weeks until I was first sent into the ring in order to kill the other tributes just for the honor of living. I looked around at the various stations, trying to decide which ones would be the least waste of time for me. I had invisibility for camouflage, and energy beams to start fires. I had no need for rope climbing as it would be so much easier to just fly, and as far as close combat went, I had two years of ghost fighting under my belt to give me that. Self-defense would be a simple matter of using intangibility and hunting was hardly needed in my ghost form but would still be simple when I needed the food. The heavy weights would have proven child's play for me after everything I've thrown from one side of the district to the other, and why use arrows when I once again had energy blasts? I thought about heading over to see what plants would be helpful for healing, but I already knew most of those from Jazz and Sam fussing over me, not to mention my naturally fast healing. Essentially, every station that was set up held no real value to me with my ghost powers, but I had to do something. I didn't want it to look like I was too scared to try. Showing weakness would only get me targeted early on, I'd learned that from watching the games in the past and my years of ghost hunting.

In the end, I settled on throwing knives. It'd keep me from getting out of practice with my aim and still give me something to show off to the game makers later without letting them know of my ghost powers before the Games began. I didn't want to reveal myself before the Games started, if I did there was bound to be a mound of ghost hunting gear at the cornucopia at the start. I sat there for hours every day just throwing knives over and over, often making several stick in the handle of the ones before just for the hell of it. The better these guys knew I was, the more likely they were to leave me alone until the weaker competitors were out of the way. Besides, it'd lead them into the false thought that my ranged attacks were better than my close combat ones were. While I was slightly better with my ranged attacks, there was no significant difference between those and my shorter ranged ones. Each ghost had a different range at which they were comfortable attacking, as a result I was pretty handy at any range you could throw at me.

Several times I caught the others gawking at my skill, though I really thought I could have been doing so much better. Ten was my current record of knives sticking together in the target, I had a feeling I could easily get twenty if I actually focused, but my mind was constantly somewhere else. I couldn't stop thinking about Sam no matter how hard I tried. The last kiss we shared before we were separated was still fresh on my mind, and all the questions that surrounded it where even closer to the surface.

'Come on, Fenton. Focus, you won't get to see her again if you can't survive.' A small part of my mind kept saying that, but the rest of my mind was either more than sure I'd survive anyway or still off in Lala Land thinking about Sam. It's amazing how the mind of a halfa can work like that, focusing on three different things at once (four if you count the knives I was repeatedly throwing without even thinking about it).

One day, I didn't do anything in training except watch everyone else, it was clear they all had their strengths and weaknesses. Star and Tamaki were both in great physical fitness, but neither one had the attention span to really work on any new skills for long enough for it to even matter. Milkyway and Kazoo were both extremely creative and resourceful, but they had no combat skills at all. Loki was good at setting traps, but he too lacked combat skills. Victoria (who for some unknown reason preferred to be called Fish) had some amazingly quick thinking up her sleeve and could come as close to invisibility as one could without being part ghost, but she wasn't in the best shape physically. Dash could actually fight, but it was clear from day one that his ego was going to be the death of him once we got into the arena. Katherine and Raven made a good team as Raven could fight and Katherine could easily pick out which plants were safe to eat and which ones weren't, but they were both lost without the other by their side.

Jessica had the same creativity as Milkyway and Kazoo, but she was horrid at remembering which plants were poisonous and which ones weren't. Marlen could aim a bow as true as the day was long, but her close range combat skills were practically non-existent. Miguel was exactly the opposite of Marlen, he could fight in close quarters, but his aim sucked, and that's being nice about it. Benjamin (who quickly made it clear he wanted to be called Ben) wasn't half bad at combat and he was good with strategizing, but he had a tendency to add the stupidest risks to what would otherwise be a flawless plan. Sarah was confident, I had to give her that, but she had a tendency to be a complete bitch, at this rate she'd make an enemy out of everyone before we even entered the ring and get killed off first. David was one of those people that everyone loved, but he had almost no skill outside of those that required dealing with people. Blake was also a people person, and while he couldn't fight he did have a distinct affinity for technology on his side; he would probably give Tucker a run for his money with what I'd seen.

It took me a little longer to figure out where Holly fit into the equation but a week in I realized that while she was good with her survival skills, her common sense could use quite a bit of work. Caleb was the same way, only he had a distinct arrogance about him, he kinda reminded me of Vlad. Elizabeth (also known as Beth) could fight better than most of the other tributes, but she couldn't climb a rope or tree to save her life and odds are it probably would at some point. Conner was extremely quiet and would probably be best used in sneak attacks, but his lack of people skills was going to cost him any and all alliances. Andrew was the opposite, he could talk almost anyone into anything, but he never bothered to shut up long enough to let anyone else talk. Odds are his big mouth would give his position away to someone with more stealth and cost him his life.

That left Samantha (Sam if you wanna live) and the Rachel from my own district. They were friends within minutes of meeting each other, I later found that was because they were equally obsessed with a God that claimed to love everyone, but still let kids get sent to their deaths every year. As I expected, Rachel alone had no real skill, but Sam knew just enough to slide by in the true wilderness and took to teaching her new friend. Sure, the pair would be able to live if they were on their own in the wild, but could they live with 22 other bloodthirsty tributes trying to kill them? Probably not, and they sure as hell wouldn't survive if I had anything to say about it. I didn't like the prospect of killing some of the very people I had vowed to protect, but I didn't really have a choice anymore.

It was as I realized that I'd actually have to hurt the people I'd vowed to protect that I realized my own potentially fatal flaw in these Games. My damned (and I swear non-existent) hero complex was going to make it hard to do what had to be done in order to survive. The best I could do was make sure the lives my own hands were forced to take would leave this world in as little pain as possible.

In the back of my mind, I was already becoming a predator as I made a list as to who would last the longest and who would end up dead on day one. It was clear from the start that Sarah would be the first to go, and Caleb's arrogance would probably get him targeted soon thereafter. I had a feeling Jessica would end up poisoning herself early on, while Beth's inability to climb anything would also take her out in seconds. The sibling duo would probably go shortly after that, I had a feeling that Raven would do something stupid to protect his younger sister and said sister would end up killed simply because she couldn't tear herself from her brother's body. I had a feeling Marlen and Miguel would also end up dying one after the other, though it was more likely that would be a result of being at each other's throats. This would probably make up the initial bloodbath that started the Games after which Rachel and Sam would probably be targeted as weaker players and taken out. Tamaki and Star would probably both end up falling victim to one of Ben's plans within a few days. While Loki would probably take out Ben before Andrew convinced him to do something stupid. I figured that by this time, Blake will have started to build various technological things, and a failed experiment on his part will be the death of him. I saw a slowly forming alliance between Connor and David, and decided that it would probably be the stealthy one known as Fish that would take them out so long as she could get her aim up to par before then. I had a feeling Holly would fall to the same trap as Connor and David leaving Fish to be one of those dark horses you simply could not turn your back to. Next on my list was Milkyway and Kazoo, they had a bond growing between them, but something was telling me they'd be secret trying to kill each other for quite some time before one managed to kill the other only to have their own contraption backfire on themselves, taking them both out. I somehow saw Dash falling victim to yet another of Fish's sneak attacks, but I didn't think Fish would live for very long after that. Stealth will only get you so far with a halfa competing against you.

Of course, that's just a guess and considering these are humans rather than the ghosts I knew, it was bound to go slightly differently.

* * *

_And here, my dear readers, we have a few prime examples of foreshadowing. The question is, which example is on the right path? :P_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	3. Chapter 3

_...wow...I thought I posted this weeks ago...damn...I can be pretty forgetful at times..._

* * *

The training period passed both too fast and way too slow for me. I wasn't particularly fond of the idea of having to kill these kids, but if it had to be done I wanted to just get it over with.

It was time to show off our skills and pray to god we could pull off a halfway decent score, one that would scare our competition and inspire some sponsors. I sat waiting for my turn, I would be second to last with only Rachel going after me. I seriously hoped I hadn't underestimated anyone, but tonight's scores would tell me if I did or not. I let my mind wander, it went back and forth between Sam, what Tucker was bound to be doing in regards to the Fenton Phone, and just how well I wanted to aim my knives tonight. I wanted to get enough to show that I had some real skill, but not enough to make people begin to question just how human my abilities were before the games started. I figured ten knives, each stuck in the handle of the one thrown before would do it. Everyone knew my record was fifteen, and dropping to ten would probably account for the nerves I was supposed to have.

In reality, I didn't feel nervous or anxious at all. I had face death and an evil alternate version of myself before, so maybe that's why I didn't feel very intimidated by the Game Makers. I wasn't allowed any more time to ponder it though, I was called into the room. It was show time. My eyes immediately found the throwing knives, and I grabbed them without a second thought. By now, throwing them felt as natural as shooting ectoplasm from the palm of my hand.

My feet walked over to face a target roughly twenty feet off. It was parallel to the Game Makers, so it would easily show just how precise my throws were. I threw one knife seemingly at random, I hadn't even taken the time to carefully aim the blade and yet it still landed in the deadest center of the bulls eye. I had their attention after that, they had seen how easily the knife had flown out of my hand. They clearly wondered if I could do it again. They didn't know I could do better than that.

The knives jumped out of my hand each landing in the handle of the last without a second thought. The only time I actually paid any real attention to where I was throwing the blade was one the few occasions I threw it a few centimeters off on purpose, just to keep my true skills hidden just under the surface. Like I said, I didn't want anyone to question just how human my abilities were just yet.

I stopped counting midway through and wound up with thirteen knives all in a row before the fourteenth finally landed wrong and fell down to the floor below the target. The Game Makers were speechless as I finished my display, perhaps I should have thrown my aim off just a little more. Needless to say, I already knew I would be getting a pretty good score. It wouldn't be the 12 I was more than capable of achieving, but it would still be pretty high up there.

Hilary, Rachel and I all gathered around the holographic screen to watch the results of our demonstrations a few hours later. The scores were right around where I expected them to be.

Star: 8

Tamaki: 7

Rachel (Milkyway): 7

Loki: 8

Sarah: 6

Dash: 10

Raven: 5

Katherine: 5

Rachel (Kazoo): 7

David: 4

Samantha: 5

Blake: 8

Jessica: 5

Connor: 6

Holly: 9 (They obviously hadn't seen her common sense in her display)

Andrew: 5

Marlen: 10

Miguel: 10

Elizabeth: 5

Benjamin: 6

Victoria: 9

Caleb: 5

Rachel (Good Little Christian Girl): 3

Me: 9

A nine, that wasn't too bad, but it also didn't show off my true potential. I briefly noted that the better districts did seem to have a slightly higher skill rating, but I wondered if the abnormalities (such as District Nine's tributes) came from some sort of illegal activities or hunting. It didn't really matter to me, I highly doubted they had held back the way I had, they wouldn't have a reason. My only reason only even existed because of my parents constantly dumping money into their ghost stuff. The only good that's ever come out of any of their inventions was that I was most likely going to win and return home safe thanks to the powers one had given me.

My mind found no sleep that night and I was forced to just lay there bored rather than fly around as I normally would have. I couldn't take the chance of my room being monitored and someone seeing me go ghost or suddenly disappear.

Skulker, of course, didn't give a shit when he decided to pay a visit.

"Ah, so this is where you've been hiding, I never took you as one to run, whelp." Seriously? I was going to be forced into a fight to the death in a few days and the ghosts couldn't just leave me alone for a little while.

"I'm not running, and I'm not hiding. In case you didn't notice, I wasn't exactly brought here by choice." Why was I telling him that? Of course he didn't care. If anything, he'd just laugh at the idea that the great Danny Phantom had been forced into going anywhere.

"Well, I suppose it doesn't matter where I get your pelt, so long as I get it."

"Can we reschedule? I'm currently busy getting ready for a fight to the death over here." He still didn't seem to care. He was Skulker, why should he care?

"I want your pelt, whelp, and I want it now." He grabbed the front of my shirt and lifted me up. I was going to stay human until I knew for sure no one was watching to see me go ghost.

"Say goodbye, whelp." His weapon started to charge, and I had just opened my mouth to speak my battle phrase when the door opened and someone came in, guns blazing.

Note to self, there really is someone monitoring my room.

It was an Avox who came in to save me. Apparently, the capital deemed their own lives more important than that of a servant, though that really was to be expected. Though I honestly hadn't expected them to send in only one, perhaps they hadn't deemed him as much of a threat since I wasn't reacting to him too badly.

A shot was fired, and this distracted Skulker enough to drop me to the ground. I stood in a battle stance, ready to fight with my bare hands if I needed to.

"Like I said, can we reschedule this? You might be better off hunting me down after the Games, when I don't have people watching me like a hawk."

He glared at me. "Don't think this means I'm not hunting you." And with that he left. I don't know why, or even how that was enough to make him leave, but it was and I wasn't going to complain.

The Avox looked me over for any sign of damage, I already knew she wouldn't find anything more than few scratches and those would probably be mostly gone by now anyway. Once she was satisfied with my wellbeing, she turned and left. Skulker's appearance unsettled me just a bit, if the ghosts could find me here then would they be able to find me in the arena? I knew there was bound to be a force field to keep humans in, but would it be able to keep the ghosts out?

Morning came, and the day's events were more than enough to distract me from the attack last night. We had a parade to attend to before the interview later that night. I fought tooth and nail for the designer to give me an outfit that didn't involve me going out there shirtless. I seriously did not want people wondering where the hell all my scars had come from, they were probably already trying to figure out where my knife skills came from as it.

In the end, we ended up with something that resembled a green fire, Rachel in a dress and me in some pants and a shirt. The shirt was sleeveless, but it was the best I could get my designer, Davalinn, to give me. It was black, but closer examination showed that the color was just to act as a background for the microscopic lights sewn into the material. The pants were the same way and once it turned on the lights were programmed to turn on in such a way that they might just pass as real fire on the extremely low quality screens they had back home. Here in the capital, it would just be seen as symbolism.

Rachel's dress was much like my outfit, with the same lights and programming. She did have the addition of some makeup that I couldn't quite tell if it held lights the same way our clothes did or if it was just reflective. It didn't really matter regardless; this was just publicity, a way of further sticking the Games in the faces of the districts. It was meant to keep people from forgetting what each child could look like if given a chance, but would most likely never be seen again.

Out carriage finally rolled out, and as it left I decided to have just a little fun. I purposely made my eyes glow green. Not just the irises as my ghost form would normally have, but the whole eye. The look on Rachel's face when she saw it was priceless, I'm sure she thought it was the work of Satan. Damn, it was fun making her think I was possessed. I just hoped no one would think it was anything more than the work of my designer; I was so close to at least getting into the Games with my secret intact, even if the world would know the truth within the first few days.

The interviews came next. The time passed slowly and I kept trying to figure out how to be likable to these people. Sure, it wouldn't be too hard for me to survive with my powers, but it would help if they were sending me gifts instead of sending my competitors boosts. I didn't even hear most of the interviews of the other tributes, all I heard of them were some of Rachel's last words about God and some such nonsense.

My turn came, I was the final tribute to face the spot light and hope the spectators liked me enough to help me out a bit once the battle began.

"And now, our final tribute from District 12, please welcome Daniel Fenton!" Why the hell was this guy so happy about this? 23 of us were sentenced to die, why did he think it was such a great thing to be a part of?

Play nice, Danny, just remember to play nice. "Welcome Daniel." His cheesy-ass smile just got bigger. How that was possible, I will never know.

"Please, call me Danny. Daniel is what my frootloop cheesehead of an enemy calls me." Yup, even god only knows how many miles away from home I can still find time to piss Vlad off. It was one of those things that just had to be done. The laughs from the crowd probably only went to irritate him more. Good, at least I could have a little fun with this.

"Sounds like you know some interesting people from back home."

"You don't know the half of it." More laughs, the exasperated tone probably got me that.

The interview went on with various pointless questions. Who do you think is your biggest competitor? (In size or skill?) Why is your enemy a frootloop? (You'd know if you met the guy. He really is one seriously crazed up frootloop.) Is there anyone special waiting for you back home? (Yes, but I really don't know where we are with that. Sam, you'll have to tell me when I make it back.)

For once I had something to thank my ghostly enemies for. Two years' worth of witty banter practice was helping me to get some laughs out the audience with all the smartass comments I shot back without a second thought. It was way too easy until Snorri got to his last two questions for me.

"Now, let's talk about that skill score of yours. A nine coming from District 12 is pretty good, right on up there with the careers average score. Do you have any idea where that came from?" He was walking on thin ice with that question, we weren't really supposed to talk about what happened in our demonstrations. Yet another smart remark was going to have to answer that one.

"Of course I know where it came from, I'm the one that earned it." Insert sly smile here. "Of course, the rest of you will just have to wait and see where it came from. Can't go giving away all my secrets now, now can I?" More laughs, the audience apparently liked me quite a bit from the response I was getting. Clumsy, clueless, Danny Fenton could actually get a crowd to like him, who would have thought?

"We're going to be seeing some of that ability in the games then?"

"You probably won't know it when you see it, but yes." If he tried to get anything else out of me, I was going to end up having to lie out my ass, and that wouldn't look too good when the Games started.

"Watch out folks, this kid seems to have more than one trick up his sleeve!"

"Again, you don't know the half of it." Another sly smile, and just for effect, I let my eyes turn their ghostly green for half a second. Long enough to be seen, but short enough to be missed if you blinked.

"Let's move on to that outfit of yours. I must say it was quite an accomplishment on the designer's part."

"Yeah, I'm sure to the folks back home it looked real."

"I don't doubt it did, but what really did it were your eyes. How did Davalinn managed that feat?" Shit. Why did they have to ask about that? Probably just because I did it on purpose.

I gave my stylist a 'Please don't rat me out' look before answering.

"I really don't know, it must have been something special in the colored contacts he gave me to wear. Even I have to admit it was a pretty cool outfit." Please don't ask more, please don't ask more.

"Yes, it was pretty cool." He gave me a genuine smile, the first I'd seen out of the guy. He then turned to address the audience. "Well, we're all out of time folks. Let's hear it one more time for District Twelve's very own, Danny Fenton!" There was one final round of applause as I hightailed it out of there.

I thought I was going to get off on the green eye thing home free, but I couldn't quite pull that off. Davalinn paid a visit just before I turned in for the night.

"You mind telling me how you really got the eye effect? It most certainly wasn't my doing." Shit.

"Do I have to?" He gave me a look.

"You do if you don't want me running my mouth about it." He was a good guy, but I somehow doubted he was joking about running his mouth if I didn't tell him how I managed it.

"Fine. Do you know of anywhere in this place that doesn't have constant surveillance?" He nodded and dragged me to the nearby bathroom. Duh, why the hell didn't I think of that before?

"Now spill."

"I will, just promise me you won't tell anyone until everyone else knows, okay?" Another nod, I guess that's about as good as I was going to get. There really wasn't much point in lying, the rest of the world was going to know soon enough.

"Don't freak out when you see this." I summoned my transformation rings and let my body be engulfed in the change I hadn't allowed myself to have in over two weeks. It felt good to use my powers again.

"Holy shit!" Yup, he freaked out, exactly what I told him not to do.

* * *

Invisible One


	4. Chapter 4

_I am so sorry it took me so long to update this! D: I got caught up in another story, but that won't happen again! From this point on, I shall be updating every Wednesday (yes, that means this Wednesday too!) at the minimum. You may see updates on other days of the week as well, but there will almost definitly be and update every Wednesday! :D_

* * *

I changed back to my human form before Davalinn could fire off any of the questions I knew were coming. I would answer them all as best I could, it wasn't like I wouldn't get asked the same questions again after I won the Games.

"See, that kind of reaction was exactly what I was trying to avoid with the whole 'don't freak out' comment." I gave him a small smile, trying to lighten the mood enough for him to relax a little. I knew this was a pretty big thing to soak in and he would probably need quite a bit of time to fully calm down, but I was going to make that time frame as short as possible.

"How… How is this even possible?" He finally managed to get out.

"Long story short, there was an accident in my parent's lab. They'd built a ghost portal and somehow managed to stick the 'On' button on the inside of it." I dropped my head a little for a second and let a small chuckle escape my lips before I continued. "I was stupid enough to walk inside it and I tripped over a rouge wire. My hand landed on that stupid button and I got electrocuted. The spectral energy that coursed through my body prompted ectoplasm to form in my bloodstream and DNA, at least, that's the running theory."

"Do your parents know?"

"Not yet, but they will by the time I get home. I know it really isn't fair, but I am going to use my powers to get home. I have to, I have a duty." My designer didn't seem fazed in the slightest.

"I really don't blame you, Danny. But why wait until the Games start to let people know?"

"Mainly because the longer I can keep anti-ghost weaponry out the arena, the better; I can handle myself and defend against it pretty well, but it'll still make things easier." Davalinn nodded, he apparently understood my motives perfectly.

"You know, you may have more of an advantage than you think, Danny." I gave him a questioning glance and he continued. "I can't be sure, but I've heard rumors of the Game Makers using a haunted arena this year." Oh, shit. That could end very, _very_ badly.

"How would that give me an advantage? If anything, it would only ensure that there were ghost weapons available. The Capital wants a show, so they're not going to throw their victims in without even a sliver of hope."

"True, but from what I've heard of our alter-ego, you would know how to defeat any ghosts that do show up, you deal with them all the time." You know, he did have a point there.

"Maybe." I wasn't too confident, and I think Davalinn could see that. It wasn't that I wasn't damn sure I could win, it was the fact that having to kill all these people was still eating away at me.

"Hey, don't worry about having to fight. You'll win, I know it." Davalinn gave me a reassuring smile.

"It's not that I'm scared of losing. I can't stand the thought of having to kill. I've seen what I could become if I let myself, and I'm not willing to let myself become that. As much as I hate to admit it, what if these Games are enough to tip the balance I've so carefully achieved and turn me?"

My designer turned friend bent down a little so he was level with me. "Don't worry. You're a good kid, Danny. I know you won't become whatever it is you're so afraid of. Even if you have to fight to live, you'll find a way to keep evil at bay." He smiled again and I could tell he truly believed it. It was almost enough to make me fully buy it too. Almost.

"Thanks, Davalinn." I forced a smile onto my face. "I'm gonna turn in now, if that's alright. I want to get as much sleep as I can in these last few days before the Games."

He nodded and led me back to my room. He turned to leave, but just as he was about to walk back through the door, he spoke again.

"Don't worry, Danny. Everything will work out." I wish I could believe that.

* * *

_I know, I know. It's pretty short, and most filler, but at least I finally updated and am getting it on a schedule! :)_

_Comments and feedback are more than welcome. I'd love to hear from you! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	5. Chapter 5

_Yes! I'm not updating half an hour till midnight this time! :P_

* * *

The last few days before the games started went by in a heartbeat. The next thing I knew, I was being fitted for this year's Games outfit (not that it'd really be seen much on me anyway) and there was a tracker in my arm. I wonder how that will respond to the ectoplasm in my system. It may not be showing any oddities now, but when I go ghost, that tracker is bound to have a fit.

I was shaking as I paced around the small holding room I was assigned to. My secret was going to be out within the next twenty-four hours and odds were I would have to make a kill by the end of the week. This was most certainly not my ideal situation, but there wasn't anything I could do about it.

Davalinn gave me one last word of encouragement before I was ordered into my tube. "You'll make it through this, Danny." Have gifted me with one last smile before I was taken from him, the only person I had left that might actually give a damn.

I was looking around before my lift stopped. The immediate area was wide open with a forest surrounding the edges, I'd bet the only water source was hidden among the trees as it sure wasn't around here. I realized Davalinn was right about the haunted arena as my ghost sense was going off within seconds. I didn't even bother to hold it in, it wouldn't matter for much longer anyway.

The final countdown started and I looked at the supplies mounted in the cornucopia in front of me. There were dozens of weapons that I just ignored; I didn't really need them when I had my ecto-energy at my fingertips. There was an empty backpack ten yards from me, a water bottle and some dried foods lay strung out just a few feet past that. Everything I needed to survive out here was right there, I could grab it and go. If I was fast enough, I could probably even make it out before the bloodbath started.

Thirty seconds to go and I heard a crackle in my ear, Tucker had managed to connect to it.

"Danny, just nod your head if you can hear me. I see you." I eagerly nodded my head. "Good. We'll talk more later, okay? Just stay alive for us, okay?" I nodded again, a little less noticeably though.

_10_

It finally set in that this was it.

_9_

The fight to the death was here.

_8_

No turning back, even if I tried.

_7_

Everyone around me is heading to the grave.

_6_

Only I could make it out, all hell would break loose if it ended any differently.

_5_

Do I fly for my supplies, or just run?

_4_

Run, run for it; I have to keep the Capital in the dark for as long as humanly possible.

_3_

The battle to the death is only seconds away.

_2_

I'll have to kill; I'll have to use my powers to kill.

_1_

Holy shit. I have to use my powers to kill.

An alarm went off, signaling the all clear to start. I took off, coming as close to soaring as one can while staying on the ground. Anytime someone would start to catch up with me, I'd boost my speed. I started off at my top human speed, but I had so much more to offer by digging into my powers just a little.

_Watch it, Danny. You're starting to stay off the ground longer than what should be possible._

"Thanks, Tuck, but I don't really care."

_People are going to get suspicious Danny._

"Let them. My secret will be out soon enough. I'm going to do what I have to in order to win."

_Have you forgotten Dan?"_

"Not in the slightest. I have to kill to live, I'm not doing it just for the fun of it like he was."

_Alright, dude. It's your choice._

I didn't respond. I had slung the empty pack onto my back and started dropping the nearby food and water bottle into it as I ran. I made a beeline towards the cornucopia, even though I already had everything I needed. I was hell bent on snagging as many ghost weapons as I could before the other bozos even got a chance. The fewer threats there were to my safety, the better. It probably looked like I'd be one of the deaths in the initial bloodbaths, but, as cynical as it may sound, those idiots couldn't lay a finger on me. Even if it meant my secret was out in the open within minutes, they still wouldn't lay a finger on me. Until someone got ahold of a ghost weapon and learned how to use it, I was pretty much unstoppable.

_You're getting a rather cocky smile on your face there, Danny. Whatever you're thinking, please don't let it go to your head. You'll just end up doing something stupid._ It was Sam's voice this time; only she could pick up on that so fast.

Contrary to my belief, there were only four or five ecto-guns in sight, not the massive hoard I'd been expecting. I grabbed them all, shoving them into my pack. I could almost hear my parents shouting out encouragements to the T.V., praising me for being smart enough to go after what I know.

I made my way through the cornucopia, and found what was causing my ghost sense to go crazy. There was a small portal at the end, just large enough for any one of my enemies to come through. This only added to the irony the blood-bath on the cornucopia already provided. What could provide all the supplies to maintain life, could also bring death.

I closed my bag tightly and made my way back out, fighting through the crowd that was just arriving. Damn, I'd run faster than I thought. I completely ignored the throwing knives I'd trained with, I didn't really need them. I took off once again in the direction of the forest, though it was at a slightly slower pace. I didn't need nearly as much speed this time. The trees passed by at lightning speeds. Whenever I caught a glimpse of another tribute, I altered my direction ever so slightly, Keeping my feet intangible as I ran through the shrubs. There was enough cover that hardly anyone would see it, not that it really matter much if they did.

After what I had to guess was a mile or so, I finally stopped to go through the supplies I had. The empty water bottle would be easy to fill when I needed to. I'd just have to use my powers to fill it with ice and then use my ecto-energy to melt the ice. It was metal, so I wouldn't have to be nearly as careful about keeping the bottle itself from melting. I had more than enough food to survive the games on. It wouldn't last a normal person more than a few days, but I could live for two weeks off my current supply, one if I wanted to keep my hunger at an acceptable level. The guns were all a really old model. They didn't work yet, but if I poured just a little of my ecto-energy into them, they'd work for the rest of eternity.

I heard cannon shots in the air, the initial bloodbath was over. Five deaths, less than usual, the capital was bound to go looking for more bloodshed soon. I settled down for the night, only eating what I had to to keep myself going.

The casualties?

Holly

Sarah

Caleb

Beth

Blake

Five down, eighteen to go.

* * *

_Ah, the people hitting people has started. Skulker must be proud. :P_

_Feedback and comments are welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	6. Chapter 6

_I know it's still technically Tuesday, but I had it already done. This will likely be the usual weekly update, not a bonus one. Sorry! :)_

* * *

I woke up the next morning to the sound of a twig snapping. Whether or not it would have woken up anyone else was debatable, but that's not the point here. Another tribute was approaching fast, they were probably already at the base of the tree. I was once again questioning whether or not now was the time to let the world know of my ghostly advantage.

I looked to the ground, only to find that no one was there. If there had been, my enhanced sight would have seen them in the early hours of the still dark morning. There was a rustle of leaves roughly ten feet to the left, whoever was out here was up in the trees. I ran back through my memories of our training days. Only two people came to mind, it was either Fish or Connor planning a sneak attack. Or, I mused, they could have teamed up. It was possible, Fish had actually managed to get the quiet and reserved Connor to talk some during training. Never enough to ensure an alliance, but certainly enough make that a possibility.

Just as I spotted Fish in the trees with no weapon of any sort, I heard the distinct twang of a bow behind me. So they had teamed up and Fish was meant to distract me. The arrow flew by my head a second later and caught it just as it was passing me. Fish had a decidedly stunned look on her face, her mind was probably telling her this shouldn't be possible. I suppose under normal circumstances, she might be right but nothing about my life fit the description of 'normal' circumstances.

I decided to play with the two just a little, enough to scare them off so someone else would kill them. Yes, they were going to die anyway, but I really didn't want their blood on my hands.

"Care to try that again?" There was a double attack a split second later. Connor fired again and Fish threw a knife I had managed to miss when I first saw her. Rather than trying to catch both, I opted for relying of my battle instincts and jumped out of the way, landing with the grace of any cat. I noticed then that they had actually been rather smart about positioning themselves. They were clearly both aware that neither one had the perfect aim of Marlen, so they had sat up in the trees at an angle from one another. This would allow each more room for error in the event that they missed me. I mentally added their natural instincts for battle to my mind, sure, they needed training, but that instinct was definitely there.

They both had a surprised and amazed look on their faces. It was now that I realized how eerily similar they looked, they could have passed as brother and sister if they came from the same district. I let my thoughts wander for a second, wondering if they had a distant relative in common or something, not that it really mattered.

"Are you done? I'd like to get a little more sleep before the sun actually rises." My uncaring tone really seemed to piss them off, I hadn't done it on purpose, that was just my natural tone in the middle of battle. Two years worth of ghosts and witty banter 'll do that to you.

"Don't bother trying, Ghost Child. Soon, you will have no need for sleep." Damnit Skulker!

I turned to face the ghost and gave him a death glare, though it's hard to say just how much of an effect that would have on a ghost. "Your pelt will be mine, whelp." I let my eyes gain their ghostly green color.

_You okay in there, Danny?_

"I'll be fine Tuck. He's not much of a threat." I'm sure I looked slightly crazy as I turned my head to say that. My attention went back to the ghost at hand, though not before realizing I still had Fish and Connor staring at the scene. "I think we both know you will never have my pelt to hang on your wall, so can we just skip this and reschedule?" I really wasn't planning on letting my secret out so soon. I would if I had to, but I really didn't want to.

"Who the hell is this guy?" That was Connor, I'm pretty sure that was the first time I've actually heard his voice outside of the interviews.

"I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter!"

"And I have got to call bullshit on that for about the billionth time." I got the crack in and saw his face visibly turn to a look of extreme frustration. Irritated Skulker was fun Skulker. That and he was more prone to making mistakes when he was pissed off.

"You dare insult me, Ghost Child?"

"Actually, yeah. Sorry, bud, but I've gotta agree with Ember on this one. You're a lousy hunter." I didn't even hear his response as I had grabbed the ecto-gun I'd kept on my belt throughout the night. I poured a little of my ghostly energy into it and powered it up making a clean shot at Skulker's head. I had no way on containing him, but I could at least put him out of commission for a few hours if I did this right.

His head popped up and flew god only knows where leaving the rest of the blob's suit useless. He would have to find his head before he could do anything else. "I am the Skulker! The Skulker! Fear me!"

"Good god, Skulker. Are you taking lessons from Boxy now?" He didn't bother to respond and I really didn't know what answer I wanted to hear to my question. Anything he would have said would have been nothing short of pathetic.

The suit of armor stood still as both it's head and usual occupant were now missing. I briefly wondered how Skulker intended on hauling his head back once he found it. But that was before I realized I had some very confused spectators both standing behind me and watching the program at home

"What was that?!" Fish spoke. I couldn't tell if she was terrified, curious, amused, or a mixture of the three

"That was a ghost. More specifically, that was Skulker, the self proclaimed greatest hunter of the Ghost realm. He's really just a bat-shit crazy ghost who can't even hunt down his own remote according to his equally crazy girlfriend." Please don't ask how I know. Please don't ask how I know.

"How does he know you?" Damnit Fish! Couldn't you have just taken that answer and dealt with it?

"Uh, hello. District 12, also known as Amity Park, the most haunted place in the country? Ring any bells?" I wasn't really sure what the hell I'd do if they didn't accept this as answer. Thankfully, the pair just nodded and I hear a beeping moving through the air getting closer and closer. It would be here in a minute or so, and I doubted Fish or Connor could hear it yet. It was looking like one of us was about to get a gift.

Just as Fish opened her mouth to ask another question, the gift arrived, landing firmly in my hands. I opened it up and read the tiny note.

_**You might find this more useful than those old models. -Mom and Dad**_

There was a small, yet fully functioning wrist ray inside. I said thanks to what would have been the thin air had this not been the middle of the Hunger Games arena. I couldn't help the smile that came form knowing that I had just been given a ghost weapon even though I myself was a walking, talking one that was probably much more effective. I couldn't blame them, they didn't know that I was part ghost, besides, it's the thought that counts right? And maybe this would let me keep my secret a little longer. The longer I kept it, the more expensive it would be to gift weapons like this to the other tributes.

* * *

_So...I've been looking at my life schedule, and I'm thinking I'll start getting another update on this in during the weekends too. :D_

_Questions? Comments? Concerns? Review! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	7. Chapter 7

I stuck with Fish and Connor after the ghost attack. They weren't the best fighters, but they were useful in their own ways. I found that they had both hidden some of their real talents. While it hadn't been hard to see that Fish was a quick thinker while we were in training, she was much more skilled in survival than I had given her credit for. Connor also had some tricks up his sleeve as he hadn't shown his real intelligence before the games started. It was already clear to me that they would be some of the last kids standing, and with me, they were practically unstoppable.

At least, they were until another ghostly foe showed up just to fuck with me.

My sense went off, I had honestly been expecting it after not seeing anything all day. Desiree showed up not long after in an attempt to lead my fellow tributes to a temptation that would not look nearly as good on the other side.

Conner and Fish spotted her a minute after I did, they were fast learners. I was sure that had they lived in the Twelfth district, they would have made fine ghost hunters with just a touch of training. Connor was crouched in front of Fish in a defensive position, hanging on to the feeling that Fish was his long-lost little sister even if he'd never see her again after the Games were done.

"Hello, children." Desiree spoke with a smooth, yet almost hypnotic tone as she made her genie-like appearance.

"Who the hell are you?" Connor spoke with a confident voice I wasn't aware he had. Perhaps he was like me, shy at some times and confident at others. The only real difference would be his lack of secret identity.

"I am Desiree. What is your wish?" Both Fish and Connor opened their mouths to respond right as I cut in, not willing to let them make such a stupid mistake as letting Desiree hear a wish.

"Leave them alone, Desiree. You are not going to work your magic here." I tried to add a threating tone to my voice, but I had a feeling it would have worked better if I had been in my Phantom form. I seriously considered changing for a minute, but I realized I wasn't ready to spill that secret quite yet. Soon, yes, but not yet.

Connor seemed to get the message I was sending him and Fish. " I wish you would just go away." Well, he got half of the message. At least he knew not to wish for anything that was too easily interpreted.

Desiree got an unidentifiable look on her face as she heard this. "So you have wished it, so shall it be." She spoke her signature phase with more irritation than actual magic. That was her main downside, that she couldn't ignore a wish even if it harmed her.

I looked to Fish who had been sitting by so silently all this time and saw a look on her face that could only mean she was trying to fit puzzle pieces together. I hadn't really exposed that much had I? Whatever she was thinking, she chose to remain silent about as Connor left to find some firewood to keep us all warm throughout the night.

A bundle of wood was left near me as the quiet boy left to grab a little more, enough to keep a fire up all night if we wanted. I set about attempting to light the fire the normal way, not wanting Fish to grow any more suspicious of me than she already was. I hear a crackle in my ear as Tucker's voice came to me through the Fenton phone I'd almost forgotten I had. There was an unspoken agreement to use it very little, as too much usage might attract unwanted attention to it and my friends astonishing hacking skills.

_Stop screwing around and just light the damn fire already, Danny._

"Why are you so damn impatient?"

_Because I'm not too keen on letting your own stupidity be the death of you._

I sighed at the comment and decided I might as well humor him. I discreetly sent a spark of ecto-energy down to the wood resting on the ground and it sprung to life, only maintaining a slightly green hue for a few seconds before turning to fire's natural color.

"I knew you weren't normal!" I turned to see Fish had been staring over my shoulder and paying more attention than I thought. Damn, she's really gotten good if I didn't hear her moving. Alright, time to play dumb and figure out exactly what the hell she'd seen.

"What are you talking about, Fish?" Her expression hardened, it was clear I wasn't going to get away with throwing complete bullshit her way.

"I'm not an idiot, Danny. You shot a green spark out of your finger. Now, tell me how the hell that's possible." Wow...that had to have been the first time I ever heard her curse. That wasn't of much importance though. Right now, I needed a cover story, and I needed one fast.

"Do you want the long version, or the shortened, condensed, version?" It didn't really matter what she said, she was getting the same amount of bullshit either way. I was mainly hoping she might just say 'never mind' and let it drop.

"Just tell me." Well, that didn't really answer the question.

"There was an accident in my parents' lab, okay? There's been some ectoplasm floating along in my system ever since and I can usually get a spark to leave my finger if I concentrate long enough. That's all though." I would say it was only a half lie, but I'm not sure that really qualified as half truth.

As I watched Fish's face, it suddenly occurred to me that I was going to have a lot of explaining to do to my parents when I got home. They'd be yelling at me for not telling them about the residual ectoplasm in my system as it was, and I hadn't even fully revealed my secret yet.

Connor returned soon after that with a little more firewood in his arms, clearly please to see the fire already going. We sat around the fire chatting idly and eating the meat we'd cooked when I realized that sharing my food supply with my new allies was causing it to rapidly deplete. I'd be out by tomorrow at this rate. As if on cue, I heard a faint beeping coming towards us. Another gift? So soon?

It finally landed and inside the canister was a decent amount of food. There was also a note from mom and dad.

_You have quite a bit of explaining to do when we see you again._

Can't say I didn't see that one coming. On the bright side, they did seem to think they'd see me again, that or they were just trying to keep my spirits up.

I noticed for the first time that the parachutes on the gifts were plastic. It may have been a seemingly insignificant detail, but plastic has one whole hell of a lot of uses when you know how to use it right. I went on my gut instinct and took the sheet of plastic that had served as a parachute after retrieving the food from inside.

We stuck together as we walked for a few hours. I thought I might actually be able to go a day without incident when Desiree showed up again.

My ghost sense went off, and I'm sure I visibly straightened as I became much more alert. Then I saw the demented genie of a ghost.

"Really? You again?" I let my tone of voice show my irritation. I'd just dealt with her yesterday! Besides, hadn't she been wished away by Connor?

"Yes, child. It is me. What is your wish?"

"I wish I didn't have to play these damned games anymore." Connor had spoken before I could stop him. He'd muttered it under his breath, but if I could hear him, I knew Desiree did too.

"Don't you dare act on that, Desiree." My eyes glowed a threatening green.

"Since when have I ever listened to anything other than wish?" Oh shit, this was not going to end well. I probably should have actually told Fish and Connor that she heavily twisted every wish she heard, but I didn't think we'd be seeing her again. "And so he has wished it, so shall it be."

Connor dropped to the ground, the life gone from his eyes, seconds later. A cannon shot filled the air.

* * *

_Wow...it almost kills me to cut it off right there... This might be good news for you, it might just bug me enough to update early! :P_

_Comments and feedback are welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	8. Chapter 8

_Oh look, the ending on that last chapter did bug me enough to update early. Luck you! :P_

* * *

Fish ran to Connor's side as soon as he hit the ground, I could see she was fighting to hold back tears; she was a fighter, Sam would like her. As I saw the pain Fish was facing and that met my own, I almost lost all control.

I could feel my eyes changing colors more intensely than normal. I was pissed, though whether it was at Desiree for killing him, or myself for not saving him I'll never know. My eyes first became their ghost neon-green, then that green went past just the irises of my eyes and the whole eye itself changed. I only distantly felt the change take place; I had never lost this much control before, but I'd also never lost a human life before either.

"You are going to pay for that." My hand shot out and easily grabbed Desiree's ghostly tail.

"No man may lay a hand on me unless I wish it!"

"Or I don't give a shit about what you want!" I held on firmly, the pure energy coming forth from my anger kept her from escaping.

Tuck must have seen the dangerous look in my pure green eyes. _Danny calm down!_ He knew this wasn't going to end well. I didn't really care what he had to say at that moment anyway, nothing could stop me.

My eyes changed once again, going from green to icy blue as my ice powers took over. Desiree was frozen over within seconds. My hand was still grabbing her tail as I threw her over my head, being much more ruthless than usual.

_Danny, please. Just calm down!_ It was Sam's voice that time. I stopped myself from going ghost and beating the ghost into oblivion.

It wasn't Sam's voice that stopped me though. It was the pure fear I saw in Fish's young eyes as she grabbed my arm, begging me to just let it drop. She knew I was dangerous and didn't want to get her or anyone else hurt. What do you know, the kid would be a perfect candidate for a hero complex (not that I actually had one). She was trying to stop me from completely losing it even though we'd never see each other again after the Games were through, even though there was a good chance I could have taken her life right then and there had I wanted to.

It suddenly hit me that she was trying to stop me from becoming Dan without even knowing of his existence. I was on the road to becoming exactly what I always promised I wouldn't become. It was right then and there that I decided I was going to find some way of saving at least one other tribute without sacrificing myself, it was the only way to keep my sanity. Fish was going to make it out of these Games alive, whether she made it home or not though wasn't exactly within my control.

There was another series of beeps coming towards us. I never thought I'd find myself receiving so many gifts. This one held a bottle of water and a note from my parents again.

_Did we say 'quite a bit'? We meant, you have a LOT of explaining to do._

You just gotta love their ability to reprimand a kid even when they're fighting for their life. It did make me feel good to know that everything that happened in this arena to me meant enough to put aside ghost hunting long enough to save the money and help me out a bit.

"You okay now?" Fish's voice came from beside me, still laced with the barest trace of fear.

"Yeah. Sorry I kinda lost it back there." My hand went to the back of my neck on reflex. People had to be starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together by now, there was no denying that I wasn't an ordinary kid.

"It's fine. Now…" Oh shit, I could see what was coming next. "You can only get a spark to leave your finger, huh?" The hand I'd just removed from the back of my neck went right back up to meet it. At my lack of response she just continued. "Danny, how was that even possible? Even I know that's not just a little ectoplasm floating around, that had to be the result of a lot."

"Look, Fish, I can't really tell you right now, okay? You'll find out soon enough, but the longer I can keep the biggest piece of this out of the picture, the better." She didn't look like she was all to willing to let me get away with that, so I continued. "If it was safe to just tell you now, I would. Trust me, it's going to come out soon enough, but once the Capital sees it, all hell will break loose. Just let me keep my secret for now and I'll protect you."

"Fine." She reluctantly agreed. "But make no doubt that I will question you to no end when I do figure out what the hell is going on with you." She really was a good kid, even at the thirteen years of age that she was, she knew when it was best to just let things fall into place. It made me wonder just what had happened in her life that caused her to grown up so much.

_Danny, your parents wanted us to tell you that she's not the only one that going to be asking you questions. _Wow, I wasn't aware my parents knew about the Fenton Phone I had on me. I decided to speak to the thin air again in response.

"Don't worry, mom and dad. I can take care of myself more than you know." Even though that didn't directly answer statement that Tucker had relayed, it would put their worried minds at a little more ease. They were bound to be wondering what dangerous shit I was getting myself into and just knowing that I could take care of myself would calm them a little. Even if they didn't know they'd seen my abilities with their own eyes, they'd be a little happier to know I at least thought I wasn't in too far over my head.

* * *

_Feedback and comments are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	9. Chapter 9

_Before you all ask...I have no idea where some things in this chapter came from..._

* * *

Fish and I moved back up into the trees a few hours later after I had stashed the new bottle of water away in my bag. My companion was really quite deft among the tree tops. Me? Well, I probably would have broken my neck and several other bones if I didn't' have my powers to balance me back out every time I started to fall. We moved quickly until we came across the campsite of a few other tribute; it belonged to three of the stronger tributes. Star, Tamaki, and Dash were all milling around this site doing various things. Star was cooking what looked like a possum, Dash was practicing with a blade and Tamaki was shooting arrows into a crudely made target roughly ten feet off.

I looked to Fish and gave her a small smirk as a plan came to mind. It would really mess with the idiots below us and it might (as much as I hated it) cause them to attack and possibly kill one another.

"Stay within arm's length of me." I whispered over to Fish. I wanted her to stay close so I could turn us both invisible if need be. She nodded and moved a little closer as I began to plan and take aim.

The target Tamaki was shooting at was constructed of some coarsely tied dried grass and was flammable. I didn't have a clear shot, so I made a small shot of ectoplasm ricochet off of Dash's blade at just the right moment.

Well, it should have been the right moment, but as soon as I shot off the blast, I realized that Dash had just chosen to change up his training course and moved his blade in a new direction. The result? The blast hit Star's long hair and it went up in flames, causing her to freak out as her hair was quickly eaten by the fiery monster. Both Dash and Tamaki turned their attention to Star immediately, but I'm sure we all remember Tamaki's distinct lack of attention, right?

He still had the bow string pulled back as he turned around, and when he saw Star's situation, he burst out laughing, forgetting his bowstring. He let it go without thinking and his arrow flew straight and true into Dash's chest. The laughing stopped instantaneously as he realized what his own stupidity had just done, Dash was a goner, all ther was left to do was wait for the cannon shot to go off.

Star was in shock to say the least and her hair was forgotten for a mere moment. It was a bad idea to forget it though, as the fire seemed to grow in strength as it approached the top of her head. She, too, was a goner, her exposed skin looked like it'd been through hell and back and her brain was sure to be overheating by now. It was an awful way to go, and I certainly hadn't meant for it to turn into that, but it appeared as if that was her fate now.

Her eyes grew wide as the pain of the burns finally caught up to her failing brain and her burnt body slumped to the ground seconds later, leaving Tamaki all alone. Two cannon shots went off, and I had half the mind to let Tamaki take a fair shot at me. I had wanted to mess with them a little, not kill two off from one missed blast. Tears were welling up in my eyes and I forced them back, I didn't deserve to cry after causing that. Fish put a comforting hand on my shoulder, she was no idiot, she knew that this wasn't my intention.

I was about to turn and just let myself finally break down on her shoulder, as out of character as it would have been, when I noticed Tamaki had gotten enough sense back to start looking for the culprit that had started this whole thing. I grabbed Fish's arm and made a run through the trees. Dash and Star were dead and there was nothing I could do about it except accept the fact that their deaths made it easier for me to win. God, I hated the Capital. Those idiots were forcing me to think like Dan, and I didn't want to be doing that. I didn't want to be accepting of the death I caused. Too much more of this shit and I was going to actually start enjoying it.

We stopped about half a mile away when it looked like Fish's physical strength was about to give out on me. We moved down towards the ground the make camp for the night. I was cold and distant as I went through to motions of making a suitable camp for survival. I was terribly shaken by the two deaths, one more gruesome than anyone deserved, I had caused by my own hand. If it weren't for the promise I'd already made myself to get Fish the hell out of here alive, I probably would have just given up and let fate run its course. Even if that did mean becoming Dan, I didn't want to fight much of anything anymore.

"Don't beat yourself up about Dash and Star, Danny." Fish had managed to sneak up beside me, further proof of just how much this was affecting me.

I gave out a rather criticizing scoff. "How could I not? You have no idea what I'm fighting against here."

"They would have died eventually anyway." True? Yes. The point? Not in the least.

"But they didn't have to die at my hand. They shouldn't have died at my hand."

"And why not, Danny? I know I'm sounding rather morbid and uncaring, but someone had to die at your hand. Your so hell bent on making it home, but you need to get it through your head that you've got to kill to do that. I don't like it either, but that's how these damned Games work."

"You wanna know why? Its because I know damn well what I could do if I let myself. I know the destruction I could leave in my wake if I start down the wrong road. Trust me Fish, you've only seen a small fraction of what I can do when I really try." There was a look in her eyes that I couldn't identify. I couldn't tell if there was an odd sense of understanding in her eyes or if she was just deciding whether or not she should just run now and get as far away from me as possible.

She finally responded several minutes later. "Do you have control over yourself?" What the hell she meant by that, I wasn't exactly sure, but I answered to the best of my ability.

"Yeah."

"The stop whining about what you could be and worry about what you are." I never have figured out how one statement lead to the other, but she did have a point. If I wanted to avoid what I could be, I needed to focus on what I was. Yes, I was going to have to kill again, but if I could keep myself sane enough to remember why and limit the suffering I had to cause, I could still beat my dark side.

* * *

_I seriously don't know where that came from... I must be on a demented streak... O_O_

* * *

_Invisible One_

* * *

_On a side note that has nothing to do with the story or how it shall progress in any way shape or form..._

_Tomorrow night, 9/26, ABC is airing the piolet for a new show called "The Neighbors" at 8:30 central time if my memory serves. Now, I normally wouldn't do this and if it were any normal show, I wouldn't, but I suggest you watch it if you can. My little stinker of a nine year old brother is on it (I mean actually on it, not some extra making their part out to be more than it is, but an actual leading role) and, I'll never tell him this, I'd actually like it to get enough veiwers for it to get a few more seasons. So I encourage you to watch it! :D_

_And the random disclaimer that I suppose needs to come along with that: I do not own "The Neighbors". That show belongs to ABC._


	10. Chapter 10

I fell into an uneasy sleep that night, not really too fond of leaving Fish on lookout without any back up. I tried to convince her to just let me take over again, but she argued that I'd already gone two days with hardly any sleep and that there was no way in hell I'd be able to get through a third sleepless night and not get myself killed. The only reason I agreed with her was knowing that I'd wake up from an oncoming threat much sooner than she'd even notice it. At least I hoped so, I realized just how much I'd over exhausted myself when I laid down and felt my eyes begin to droop with in seconds.

I woke up sometime later to the bright morning sun. I suddenly understood Sam's distinct hatred for it. "Finally awake, sleeping beauty?" I glared at Fish. I liked the kid, but only Sam got to tease me like that!

"Have you already forgotten what I could do if I wanted to?"

"No, but I also know you're hell bent on not hurting anyone you don't have to." She was apparently more hell bent on being a complete smart ass than usual.

I stayed quiet, I really didn't feel like getting outsmarted by a thirteen year old and giving Sam something new to tease me about. I lit a new fire and Fish roasted a rabbit she'd managed to catch while I was dead to the world. We ate in a comfortable silence, both of us listening for sounds of an approaching tribute.

We were just putting out the fire when my ghost sense went off and I realized I was screwed when I heard a scream not even a hundred yards off. If I didn't have a distinct feeling that it was a ghost that caused that scream, I probably would have ignored it and taken it for being part of the Games. But, the fact that my ghost sense had gone off shortly before hand told me that I needed to get over there, fast. I was not going to let ghosts get into the habit of killing even if most of these kids weren't going to make it out alive.

"Fish, we gotta go."

"If it's about the scream, you really need to just let it happen. We both know they're going to die anyway."

"I said, we need to go." My eyes flared green, but Fish didn't flinch at it, she was already used to it apparently.

"And why is that, Danny?"

"Because I am not going to let a ghost take another life! That's why! Now get off your lazy ass and follow me or get left behind!" I blew up for unknown reasons. Sure, Fish had seen me start to lose it with the ghosts before, but she was terrified now that she realized that power was threatening to be released in her direction.

"Calm down, Danny. I'm coming." She pulled her self together and got up to follow me and I forced my eyes back to their normal blue color.

Barely two minutes later, we arrived to the sight of Skulker wreaking havoc now that he had apparently gotten his head back on. He turned to me. "Hello, Ghost Child. Are you here to finally allow me to have your pelt?"

"Okay, that's still gross after hearing it fifty times, and no." Seriously, this guy needed some new threats.

"Perhaps this will persuade you?" He pointed his arm over to the two tributes I hadn't noticed before. Sam and Rachel (the good little Christian Girl) were standing ten yards off and were clearly going to be the targets of Skulker's attack.

"Don't you dare, Skulker." For what had to be the millionth time since I've been thrown in this damned arena, my eyes flashed green again.

"Oh, but would I?" As if on cue, he fired his missile off. I didn't think, I just acted jumping into action. I didn't bother trying to hide who I was any longer as I transformed mid jump and shot off into the air. I could practically hear the gasps of surprise coming from those watching the Games, I'm pretty sure I really did hear a few coming through the Fenton Phone in my ear.

I got to Rachel and knocked her out of the way, but I reached Sam a half second too late and she was blown to pieces in seconds, an arm landed not two feet from where I had knocked Rachel into Fish.

The look on my face probably looked murderous as I turned to face Skulker. I was beyond pissed and not a whole lot could save his shiny little ass now.

"You are so going to pay for that."

"It appears as though I've finally dragged you out of hiding, whelp." Skulker smirked, he must not have realized exactly how much pain I could cause him even with his precious little suit protecting him.

"I am going to tear you APART!" I let the power that had been building up inside me to finally fly free as a ghostly wail tore itself from my throat. An arm and a leg flew off his suit and into the woods, god only knows where it landed.

He tried to make a run for it, realizing that if he couldn't beat me before, there was no way in hell he could beat me now that I was this pissed. "There is no way in hell you're getting off that easy!" I've lost two human lives now, I am not going to let that go without some serious ass kicking.

Ice captured the blob of a ghost as he tried to eject himself from his suit. I didn't show mercy this time as I blasted his little block of ice to smithereens. It would take him weeks just to rebuild his form again, much less get his suit back in working order again.

I fell to the ground as the energy tax on my body finally took its toll. I changed back into my human form as just sat there on the ground, unwilling to move. I've lost two human lives now. Two people dead because I didn't' do my job right.

_Danny, you okay? _Sam's worried voice came through the tiny speaker in my ear.

"Yeah, just a little worn out." Okay, that might have been at least half-lie, but I didn't feel like anyone knowing just how much this was affecting me.

_You sure?_ Figures that she would question me, I really didn't expect her to believe me to begin with.

"Yeah." Time to redirect the conversation. "How are my parents doing?"

_They have a lot of questions and are still trying to figure out why you didn't tell them. No amount of damage control is going to fix this, you know that right?_

"I know. Just answer anything the feel they need to know now and I'll tell them the rest when I get home."

_Okay._ Silence filled my ears as she cut off the transmission. I finally turned to see the two girls I now had under my protection.

"You two okay?" Rachel just stared at me, still trying to figure out what the hell had just answered, it was Fish that actually responded.

"We're fine, but you do realize you just revealed whatever the hell you are on national, required, programming, right?" It really didn't surprise me that she was only slightly affected, she had seen a lot of what I did before, she just now knew the full extent of what was going on with me.

"Yes, I know that Fish. And it's called being half-ghost, for the record."

It was at that point that Rachel finally spoke, and I heard her curse for what was probably going to be the first and last time.

"Holy shit! You're Danny Phantom!" Ladies and gentlemen, may I present, Captain Obvious!

* * *

_I really have no comments on this..._

_Comments and feedback are welcome as always! :D_


	11. Chapter 11

_I now present, a slightly early update! :D_

* * *

I spent the next half hour explaining the basic gist of what had happened in my life to caused this to happen. Fish sat there, understanding in her eyes. How she was able to make sense of my babbling so easily, I'll never know. Perhaps she was simply one of those ridiculously smart kids they spend years tailoring into the best candidates for the highest jobs a district could offer. Nothing really seemed to confuse her, and when an expression resembling that of someone completely lost started to pass over her face, it was gone as soon as I got through the end of my next sentence.

Rachel listened as well, and while she wasn't as totally lost as anyone (with, apparently, the exception of Fish) outside of our district, she was still having a hard time grasping the concept of a half-ghost. It wouldn't surprise me if her religious teachings taught her there was only the living and the dead, nothing in between. Several times she either stopped to pray or recited some various biblical verse to keep her head on straight. I'll never know how that helped her, but if it kept her from running in fear, then more power to her.

_Danny, they're just now figuring our what to say about your powers. Do you want to hear this or not?_

I considered for a moment. It might give me an unfair advantage, but I really did need to know if they were planning to throw me to the dogs on this one. I needed to know what I was up against. "Yeah, I need to hear this."

_Alright, give me just a second. _A crackle filled my ear until a faint, and static filled voice came through

_**I must say, that is quite the turn of events. For the first, and likely only, time in Games history, we have a real live super hero in our midst. For those of you who aren't quite as familiar with District 12, we now have, Danny Phantom, teen ghost fighter and widely regarded hero in the arena. Now I think we see the emergence of a definitive winner here.**_

An new voice came on, the second commentator.

_**You know, I'm not so sure. He has fought to save the other tributes rather than kill them, his hero complex might cost him the win. Most tributes would have let the others die without a second thought, as it would bring them closer to the win, but two years of saving lives seems to be stopping that response in the ghost powered teen.**_

_**True, but the real question is, what will the Game makers do about this turn of events? Will they stick to their normal rules and let the other tributes find out on their own, or will they consider this a big enough advantage to issue a warning?**_

"Sam, cut it off. I don't need to hear anything else." Okay, well, that wasn't entirely true. I really didn't want to hear anything else, I wasn't ready for the main onslaught of speculations and comments that would come with the revelation of who I was. And as far as whether or not they'd reveal my secret to the rest of the tributes? Well, I guessed I'd find out soon enough.

And as though given some unspoken cue, a booming voice suddenly filled the air.

**Attention Tributes. Attention Tributes. Due to some unprecedented and unforeseen circumstances, some rules are being disregarded in order to make this announcement. It has come to our attention that there is a half-ghost hybrid in the arena as one of this year's tributes. The name and district of this tribute will not be announced, but you have been warned they are out there. Again, there is a half-ghost hybrid in the arena.**

The voice cut off at that, leaving me to let loose a small sigh of relief. It was a fair verdict, it gave a fair warning to the rest without telling them who to hunt down as their toughest competitor. Now, I just had to hope Fish and Rachel wouldn't turn on me.

There was a comfortable silence around the camp for a while after the announcement was made. As Fish started to take her turn in cleaning up our dinner and hiding the remains of our campsite, Rachel finally found the will to speak again.

"Why did you do it?" I gave her a quizzical look, that sentence could refer to anything. She understood what I meant as she continued. "Why did you save me from the ghost? It would have done you more good to just let me die. I'm not complaining or anything, but why save me?" I sighed as I gave in and answered her.

"Because I've already lost two human lives to ghosts in these Games, I refuse to lose another. It's my job to hunt down those idiots and keep people safe."

Fish cut in here. "What he means is his hero complex won't let him leave someone to die." I glared at her, I never thought anyone could be more of a sarcastic pain in the ass than Sam.

"I do not have a hero complex!"

"Oh, sure. And I'm Santa Clause." I sent her another glare. "Oh please, Danny. I've been around you for not even a week and even I can tell you've got one."

_She is right, Danny._

"Oh, shut up Sam, you are not helping right now!" At this point, fish finally realized I was talking to thin air.

"Sam? Who is this 'Sam' of which you speak?" She had her arms crossed and a look on her face that told me she wasn't going to let me off the hook with this one. If I managed to get her and Rachel out of the Games alive, I was going to take Fish to meet Sam. It was one of those things that just had to be done.

"A friend from back home."

_Are we still just friends? I had hoped you weren't as clueless after our goodbye. _I was amazed that she was bringing that up now, more so that she was so willingly opening up to me about it. Sam wasn't one to make heartfelt emotions like that known without much preamble. Maybe it was just the stress of the Games in general that was getting her to open up.

"Sam, we're whatever you want us to be." I paused, trying to decide if I was willing to share this next bit over national television. Sure, I had revealed my ghost half, but this was so much harder. I finally decided to just go with it, get everything out there. "I love you, Sam. I want you to choose where this relationship goes, I don't want to push you." I think she was speechless.

"Would you like to explain why the hell you're talking to thin air for those of us that are slightly more sane than that?" Yeah, I really had to introduce Sam to Fish.

"I'm not talking to thin air, I'm talking to Sam."

Fish and Rachel shared a look. "There's no one there, Danny." Oh, they thought I was crazy. Best to let them know I'm still in perfect mental health.

I pulled the Fenton Phone from its place in my ear. "I'm not talking to thin air, I'm talking into this. I'm surprised you hadn't noticed it yet, Fish."

"I noticed it, I just didn't realize it worked."

"Seriously? I've been talking to people back home through this the whole time I've been here and it never occurred to you that it actually worked?" Why yes, I was going to milk this rare opportunity of outsmarting her for all it's worth.

_Congratulations, Danny. Now you've revealed that you're not only a super hero, but also that you've got a way to contact your home district. You're really playing this smart._

"You know what, I am trying here Sam! Just leave me alone about it!" I stuck my tongue out, for once hoping the cameras were on me to convey the fact that I was just playing around to her. I didn't really want a royally pissed off Sam greeting me when I got home.

_With your luck, you're going to end up being the only tribute in history to actually get disqualified from the Games._

"And that would be a bad thing...because?"

_Disqualified doesn't mean you'd make it home._ You know, she had a point.

"I'll try to be more careful, okay?"

_Good boy. _I gave a fake scowl. _Go to bed now before you fall asleep standing up._

"Yes, mother."

_Good. _There was a pause before I heard her say the words I'd been waiting to hear for years now.

_I love you, Danny._

* * *

_I was going to post this later, but it begged me not to do it. :P_

_Comments and feedback are welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	12. Chapter 12

We were sitting around a temporary campsite taking a break for the day. I didn't need it and could probably pull off moving nonstop for days, maybe even a week if I had to, but Fish ad Rachel were only human and they needed a rest. I took that time to zone out and try to think things through. I had made a promise to myself to get myself, Fish, and Rachel out of here alive, but I had yet to figure out how I could do that. If it was just one, I could have probably gotten away with just overshadowing them in the final fight, but I had two lives to save and I didn't have a clue what to do.

The twang of a bow string shook me from my thoughts as I barely jumped out of it's straight path for my head. I thought through my list of remaining people to figure out who it was and unless someone else had hidden a talent from the other tributes, it was probably Marlen shooting at us.

I heard two shots coming towards us after that, if it was Marlen, she wasn't alone. I grabbed Fish and Rachel and barely made us all intangible before the arrows hit their mark. There was movement in the trees and I briefly saw a mop of blonde hair. Only one of the tributes left had that, Ben was one of the people on our tails. There was a slim chance one of them would screw up and kill the other, and even slimmer one that they'd both mess up at the same time and kill each other. I hated it, but I was probably going to have to kill at least one of them to get us all out of here alive.

Fish reoriented herself and stood by my side. Out of seemingly nowhere, she withdrew a few of the throwing knives I had left at the cornucopia at the start of the Games. She stood there, knives at the ready, looking for her first target as though she actually knew what she was doing. Either she had been hiding more skill than I initially thought, or she knew exactly how much a good bluff could influence a battle. More scared someone is, the more likely they are to make a stupid mistake. They could be more skilled, but if you can get them to screw up badly enough, you can still beat them.

I transformed, and that was when our attackers made their first mistake, my flash of light made them curious enough o show their faces and they lost what little element of surprise they had left. True to my predictions, it was Marlen and Ben trying to take us out.

They were moving as fast as they could, trying to get out of our sights, but I was so used to fighting I could easily keep track of both as they fought to gain some sort of advantage. Fish suddenly threw a knife, seemingly at random until Marlen ran in front of it not even a half second before it hit her. Fish wasn't aiming for where the person was at that exact point in time, she was aiming for where they were going to be by the time her knife got to them. She knew a lot more than she was letting on, but apparently, she had deemed it okay to finally show off her true potential.

As Marlen dropped to the ground and a cannon shot filled the air, Ben took off making a run for his life. A few minutes later, I heard yet another twang of a bow string and a scream before a second arrow was shot off and dual cannon shots filled the air once more. Ben had taken out another team by the sounds of it, not his original targets, but he did get someone.

I turned to Fish after assuring that Rachel was okay, shocked, but otherwise fine. "Looks like I'm not the only one keeping secrets." Fish tried to shrug it off, but I wasn't going to let her get away with it. I gave her a stern look and she sighed as she gave in.

"I don't know how I do it, honestly, but I can always tell where a person is going to be seconds before they actually get there. If I aim for that spot before they get there, I'll hit my mark without fail, but I miss almost every time I try to hit a stationary target." I could tell she wasn't used to telling people about this, and I could see why. There are dozens of agencies and groups within the Capital and her own district that would kill for someone with that type of skill. Sure, she was hopeless when her target wasn't moving, but how many times will an opponent stay perfectly still in a fight?

Fish stayed quiet for the rest of the day after that, we all did really. I only forced myself to stay awake long enough to see the identities of the other two deaths before I fell asleep. It would seem that Ben ran into Raven and Katherine as he was running from me and Fish. I once more felt sorry for the parents of those two, they'd lost their only two children at the same time. I doubt anyone could stay sane after that.

I awoke the next morning to the smell of something cooking, Fish had gone hunting before I woke up. I saw Rachel sitting by the fire, still trying to process all the things that were happening around her. She thought that none of this should be possible, but in her heart, she knew there was no trickery in this. The events going down in this god forsaken arena were really happening, whether logic said it should happen or not. She couldn't be the only one wondering how these things were possible, this year's Games would probably never be forgotten.

Fish came up to me as I was finishing off my portion of the rabbit she'd killed.

"Danny, what are you going to do when it's just us left?" I looked at her, not really knowing what to say. I was expecting that question at some point, but I still didn't know how to answer it.

"I don't know, Fish. I don't know."

She gave me a look I couldn't quite identify. "You better start thinking now. There's only nine others besides us, time is winding down." She was right, I needed to figure out how to save them soon or I'd be forced to kill them and that was something I wasn't going to do. I made a promise to save them, and I was damn well going to do it.

I thought back over the course of the games thus far, trying to find anything at all to help me out of this one when I remembered the first day in this hell. The first ten minutes, really. An image of the ghost portal at the end of the cornucopia came to my mind and I found my answer.

Fish and Rachel were going to escape through that portal.

I just had to pray to god I could prepare them enough to survive that before then.

* * *

_...I swear I got that perfect aim thing from somewhere...I just can't remember where...oh well. :P_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	13. Chapter 13

_An update? A few hours earlier than usual? What sorcery is this? :P_

* * *

The following day, I started preparing to send the two girls under my wing into the ghost zone. I went through my personal food supply, figuring out exactly how much of it I actually needed and how much I only kept around so my mom wouldn't completely lose it at how little food I actually ate. I only needed a little over half of it, the rest could be saved and given to Fish and Rachel as they were sent off. I had no idea how long they were going to end up floating around in the ghost zone, so the more supplies I could give them the better. The little plastic parachutes I'd made a habit of grabbing were brought out, folded in half and sealed by my ectoplasm to form bags to help keep the food edible for as long as possible.

Fish came up when I was nearly done bagging all of my excess food. "What are you doing? You look like you're making a survival pack."

I smirked. "I am."

"We're in the middle of a fight to the death, and you're making yourself a survival pack? Generally you'd want to make that before you end up in a life-threatening situation." Fish rolled her eyes.

I chuckled. "I never said it was for me." She gave me a thoroughly confused look. "You'll find out soon enough." I left it at that, refusing to answer her even as she bugged me nonstop for at least the next half hour. Normally, I would have given in by now, but if I told her, then the Capital would know and if they knew they might try and stop me. Fish and Rachel had to be kept in the dark if I was going to get them out alive.

Sleep had almost taken over for the first time in days when two loud cannon shots filled the air once more, signaling the end of two more tributes. I didn't get to wonder who it was or who had taken them out for very long as my ghost sense went off moments after the cannon shots filled the air. I would have cursed at being forced to fight on so little sleep, but its not really like I was getting much less than I did at home anyway.

"Tremble child. For I, Technus, master of all technology am about to totally fry your bacon!" I gave a rather loud and exasperated groan as I transformed and one of the few idiots that had yet to make an appearance finally showed up.

"Fry your bacon? Is this guy stupid or something?" Fish commented on Technus' old sayings before I had a chance to.

"They're all pretty stupid, Fish. This guy just won't update his catch phrases." I turned back to the technology obsessed ghost. "Seriously, dude. The Box Ghost has better catch phrases than you!"

"You dare insult me? The master of all-"

"Can you just shut up long enough to get this over with?" I was so not in the mood to deal with him.

"Very well, child. If it's a fight you want, then-"

"A fight I'll get, I know." I shot off a blast, hoping to finally shut him up.

As I predicted, he abruptly shut up and fired back a blast of his own. Shot after shot was fired, the lack of a thermos was making this last longer than it really should have. Ten minutes in, Technus missed, and I forgot about my companions just long enough to be fatal.

There was a shriek from behind me, the missed blast had hit one of the girls I had under my protection, which one I was yet to discover. I nearly lost it at that, but something else momentarily distracted me.

"Oh, hell no, asshole!" A round from an ecto-gun was shot and the perfect aim hit Technus dead on. With an aim like that, I would have said Fish had finally decided to get off the sidelines and enter the fight. There was just one problem with that.

I had heard a boy's voice.

Several more shots were fired, each as perfectly aimed as the last, until Technus finally got the sense to run for it. I didn't even get a chance to fire off any more of my own shots. I finally came back down to rest on the ground and return to my human form.

The first thing that had caught my eye was Fish standing blankly by Rachel's lifeless body. I'd lost the girl from my own district.

The second thing I saw was just who had entered the fight on my behalf. I was amazed to find that it was one of the very people that had tried to kill me just yesterday.

Ben was standing by holding a smoking ecto-gun, still poised to shoot at a moment's notice.

"In one day, you've gone from trying to kill us to trying to help us." It didn't make any sense.

"Yeah, and you're welcome. I could go back to shooting you, if you'd like." Great, I had run into yet another smart ass. I seemed to attract these kinds of people. "And for the record, I was never trying to kill the girls. Just you. I refuse to lay a hand on a girl unless I have to."

_Sexist much?_

"Oh, shut up, Sam." I muttered into my earpiece. It would figure that she'd finally speak up as soon as it was even implied that boys were stronger than girls and all that various shit. I spoke louder. "You killed Raven and Katherine though."

"No, I killed Raven. His sister fell out of the tree upon seeing her brother dead. I didn't mean to kill her off too." I really didn't have a clue what to make of this guy. I must have given him a rather weird look. "I don't intend on trying to take you out again anytime soon. I have a feeling I'd get my ass handed to me on a platter after what I just saw anyway." He shrugged and sat down near the now extinguished fire. "Mind if I stick with you guys for a while?"

I swear, he just confused me more and more every time he spoke, but I gave in anyway. "Fine, but you had better not even try to pull that gun out." I didn't know what I'd do if he did try to pull something, but he didn't need to know that.

Ben shrugged once more. "Fine by me."

He stuck around into the night and I fell into a light sleep just after seeing the flashing images of the recently deceased.

Rachel had left this world right alongside David and Andrew.

* * *

_...I admit it...that probably came from someone daring to be hopeful... :P Don't kill me! Please! :P_

_Comments and feedback are welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	14. Chapter 14

Morning came and I found that Ben hadn't left during the night, Fish hadn't been killed and I was still half alive. Odds are, he really wasn't planning on picking us off anytime soon; if he had been, we would be dead right now. Well, actually, Ben would probably be dead. I watched as both Ben and Fish slowly woke from their much needed slumber.

Should I try to save Ben? He had tried to kill me, but did that really matter? My parents hunted me on a regular basis and I held nothing against them. It wouldn't really be fair to penalize the boy just because he had tried to survive; he'd turned against me to survive, not because he wanted to. Actually, it might be rather amusing to save the boy just to show the Capitol that I really didn't give a shit what they wanted out of me, I was going to act on my own will. I'm sure they were expecting me to just kill Ben, but I was going to save him, partially out of spite and partially out of the hero complex I'll admit I might just have a little bit of in certain situations. Not all the time, just in times like now.

We had picked up what few things we had and started moving again when there was a rustle amongst the leaves. I turned in time to see Loki racing through the trees, he didn't pay us any mind, he probably hadn't seen us. We kept walking, staying on a slightly different course than the way from which we saw Loki running. It was a good thing two because minutes later, there was a loud snap not even ten yards away from us as what was bound to be one of Loki's traps sprung to life and impaled Jessica as she was trying to make a run for her life from Miguel.

Fish drew her knives out again and watched as Miguel ran towards us. Seconds later, dual cannon shots fired as Miguel fell to the ground, as lifeless as the others that had fallen before him. It was then that it hit me how few of us were left. Other than myself, Fish and Ben, there were only four other tributes running around. I needed to get these two out of here soon.

"Fish, can you only aim knives, or are could you shoot a gun too?" If Fish could shoot a gun, then it wouldn't take much for me to get at least her to a point where she could survive the Ghost Zone for a little while.

"I think. I prefer knives, but I could probably shoot a gun if I had to. I really hate those things though."

"Why do you hate guns?" I was actually curious to see what she would say.

"Because they can backfire and kill you, but the only way a knife will backfire is if you're just an idiot all together." I burst out laughing at that. It really wasn't quite funny enough for me to laugh quite as much as I did, but I was in desperate need of a good laugh and I took what I could get. "I'd have throwing spoons if I could. I think it's be quite amusing to kill someone with a spoon. Wouldn't that be embarrassing, trying to explain that a spoon had ended your life?" She smirked, and I knew as well as she did that she had only added the last bit to help give me the laugh I so desperately needed right now.

"How the hell is it that you're the demented one and I'm the one that tried to kill him?" Ben's comment sounded so familiar, why? Probably because I had said something very similar to Tucker during the Lunch Lady's first attack.

"Simple, I'm the weirdo who wants to be a zombie, and you're the normal one that wants to actually survive the zombie apocalypse." I'm not quite sure what it was, but the new company seemed to make Fish more willing to be the goofy kid I knew she really was even if she had spent most of the Games trying to hide that. Maybe it was just the fact that Ben seemed to have found that perfect balance between being a kid and being mature, not something that a lot of people managed, and she was just quickly learning it.

The rest of the day went peacefully and I even allowed myself to indulge in a small spark of happiness until the evening began to set in. Actually, I was even happy when it did set in, well I was until that stupid gift came for us.

The artificial stars in the sky were just starting to come out when the annoying beeping of an approaching gift made itself heard.

At first, I thought it was my parents trying to send me a message again, then the little gift floated right in front of Fish. Her eyes widened in surprise, something told me that she knew her family wouldn't be able to afford to send her a gift unless it was an absolute emergency.

She slowly opened it, moving as if she were afraid of what was inside. When she finally opened it and read the note that accompanied what I assumed was meant to be comfort food, she promptly broke down in tears. She dropped the note and curled up into a little ball as she cried. Something was horribly wrong.

I picked up the dropped note and it didn't take long to realize why she was so broken up. I nearly cried myself when I read it.

_Fish, there's been a fishing accident. Your sister's boat turned over in the lake. She was trapped beneath it and drowned. W_

The note was cut off there, as it exceeded the allotted space.

I moved to the ball that was now Fish and reached to put a hand on her shoulder, though as soon as I touched her, her head shot up. Her eyes were still red and the tear stains on her cheeks were hard to miss, but the sobbing stopped as soon as she realized she was being watched. She wasn't one to show her emotions, and even the few tears that still leaked from her eyes in silence were a massive emotional display for her.

Ben stood back in silence, knowing that while she might seem calm now, his interference might set her over the edge. Not in a 'curl back up into a little ball' way, more of a 'I'll strangle you in your sleep' way. Fish may keep her emotions under control and usually only mean her threats in a joking manner, but I knew both from my own experience and years of dealing with Sam that once such an emotionally stable person loses their control to something, all hell can break loose from the simplest of things.

* * *

_Yes, I'm evil. Deal with it. :P_

_Comments and feedback are welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	15. Chapter 15

_**Chapter 15**_

* * *

There was no talk, no laughter or jokes to fill the solemn silence that fell over our small campsite. Even Ben, who had only really gotten to know Fish over the past two days, was respectful of her silence and need to be alone for a while. I left her be, keeping watch for anyone stupid enough to even try using this as a chance to take someone in my group out of the picture. I sent Ben out to go retrieve the firewood we would need in order to stay at our current campsite even though we really should have moved after staying there all day.

Fish stayed off to the side in silence, and while she refused to let any more tears fall, anyone could tell her sister's death was really hitting her hard. The smart ass comments that usually rolled off her tongue were few and far between, though she slowly let more and more make their way out as the night progressed into the next day.

When the Box Ghost decided to show up, I just handed her the ecto-gun knowing that she needed some form of release, even if it was slightly violent. Let's just say old Boxy was practically begging for my 'cylindrical container' by the time I decided to pull her off of him. The misplaced aggression did work it's magic though as she came out of her trace a little more and started actively participating in conversations even if her smile was fake and most of the light was gone from her eyes.

I knew the missing light in her eyes wasn't going to come back for as long as she was stuck in the arena. She wouldn't find happiness again until she was with her family again and able to say goodbye to her little sister properly. All the more reason to get both her and Ben out of these damned Games within the next few days. I was going to miss their company, but I wasn't desperate enough for someone to talk to that I would risk having to kill them off later.

We started to trek back to the start of these Games, back to the start of the bloodshed, even if I still didn't tell the others why. Even though we were close to where we needed to be, if I let the world know my plans now, there was still a good chance the portal would be closed off by the Capital before we got to it. As we walked and made our frequent rests, I was slowly adding more and more to the stash of supplies meant for Fish and Ben to use in order to survive the Ghost Zone for however long they might be there.

We were about a mile off when I started forming pendants for the both of them from my ice powers. The icy pendants of my DP symbol were infused with ecto-plasm so they wouldn't melt unless either I wanted it to or t was hit by ecto-energy. The same went for the thin, but strong chains I made to hang them by. Most ghosts would have no problem attacking a random human, but if it was clear they were under my protection, they were more likely to leave them alone. I was sure that every ghost in both realms knew what happened when a human life was lost after what I did to Desiree when she killed Connor. I still have yet to see or hear anything from her after that; I kept going back and forth as to whether or not I'd be sorry if I managed to wipe her out of existence altogether.

I don't lose control to many things, but the loss of a life was something that could easily drive me over the edge.

There was yet another cannon shot in the air as I was about to call it a night and fall into the uneasy sleep I've grown so accustomed too since coming here. There was a second shot right as I heard one of Fish's knives fly through the air towards a nearby tribute. I saw a flash of blonde wavy locks as Kazoo fell to the ground, leaving only two tributes outside of my group. These Games were drawing to a close.

Damn it, I'd have to explain why I kept my ghost half a secret to my parents soon.

The nightly screen of fallen tributes lite up the fake sky as I saw the face of the other fallen tribute. Milkyway had also perished, all of the Rachel's that had entered the Games had now left them. Come tomorrow afternoon, I'd have Loki and Tamaki to deal with.

I hoped to god they'd end up killing each other. I didn't even want to think about having to purposely take the life of one of these kids. Honestly, the fact that a quick death would show more mercy than letting them starve was the only reason I was willing to even take a life with my own hands.

The day where I could no longer play only the hero was fast approaching.

I'd have to take a life tomorrow.

Damn it.

* * *

_So...I just realized how close to the end this is getting... I hate it when the end sneaks up on me when I'm the one writing it... :P_

_Comments and feedback are welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	16. Chapter 16

The morning sun rose silently as we started moving at a quicker pace than usual. I needed to get Ben and Fish out of here now or they would never leave at all. All it would really take is one more tribute death to completely screw up my plan.

"Where are you dragging us?" Fish was still slightly peeved at the earlier wake up call than usual. I had to keep reminding myself that these two weren't used to being up at all hours of the day like I was, it was only natural that these two would protest every step of the way. Well, Fish actually protested, I was only able to get a string of unintelligible words out of Ben with the occasional grunt.

"Back to the cornucopia."

"Why? That's just going to put us out in the open. Do you want us to be sitting ducks for the other two?" Well, there was one thing the early morning didn't take away from Fish, her natural tendency to be a smart ass.

"No, I don't want you to be sitting ducks. Just trust me." I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she ran off right then and there; this far into the games trust was a lot to ask for.

"Then why the hell are you taking us back there?" To save your damn life, that's why. I couldn't exactly say that though without running the risk of the Capitol closing the portal on me.

"You'll just have to wait and see." She gave me a rather mean look and I could have sworn I heard a growl come from her, but she let it drop. Apparently she thought that if I hadn't killed her by now, I wasn't going to. It's a damn good thing for her that she was right.

God, I swear I'm starting to sound more and more cynical as the days go on.

_"Why are you taking them there?"_ The voice of Sam that I missed so much buzzed in my ear.

"To get them to where I went to blow off some steam last Christmas." I knew she would get the message even if the rest of the world was completely lost by the statement. Who knows, she might even get mom and dad to send a few things for Ben and Fish if I was lucky.

_"Will they need a little back up?"_

"If you can pull it off. They don't need to be wandering around there on their own if they don't have to." A part of me was against the idea of Sam and Tucker going in after these two, but I knew I couldn't really stop them if I tried. My current companions could probably use the help anyway. The sooner they managed to get home, the better.

_"We'll search until you get home. If we can't find them by then, we'll just assume Clockwork already found them."_ I swear that girl could read my mind sometimes. I had hardly even thought about which ally to send them too, but I somehow knew it'd be Clockwork to find them. He had told me several times that he hated the idea of the Games with a passion, but he couldn't actually stop them without completely fucking up every timeline, past and future.

"Thanks, Sam" The line went silent and I assume she went to go inform everyone else of my plans.

"What was that about?" Ah, so Ben had finally woken up enough to regain coherent speech. Good to know.

"You'll find out soon enough. I can't risk saying anything right now." He nodded and returned to his position at the back of our little group.

I ran though the what few details I had control over in my head. They should have enough food to pull this off and they each already had an ecto-gun stashed away. Fish had her hunting knives and the pendants were around their necks after much coercing on my part. Both of them had originally been completely against the idea, but they had stopped fighting when it became clear that I had a reason for being so damn adamant about it.

Well, I'm sure putting them on in their sleep and purposely fusing the chains tight enough they couldn't get them off with me helped my case.

Even if I did get yelled at for a good half-hour and get a few knives thrown my way.

I might have deserved it considering they didn't have a clue what those pendants were for, but still. That was a little harsh for something Clockwork could get off with in seconds as soon as they were safe.

Well...he'd be able to get them off in seconds after he stopped amusing himself with their unhappiness. He had a rather twisted sense of humor.

I took to the sky when the others stopped to rest. We were about a mile off. They'd be at the mercy of the Ghost Zone within the hour, probably sooner. I was still up in the air when a package hit my in the face and nearly knocked me down.

Well, that was real nice of whoever sent these things into the Games.

This gift was slightly heavier than the others. Perhaps mom and dad had sent some of their ghost gear to help my companions out. Just abut anything would be useful. I returned to the ground before opening it.

_Sorry if these shock you._

I only had to wonder why for a moment before I realized I'd been sent a pair of Specter Deflectors.

_"Did you know your parents had Clockworks ecto-signature on file? They say those belts have been modified so they won't shock him."_ Tucker's voice came to my ear as I hesitantly picked up the device. It delivered quite a shock to me even though it wasn't on anyone yet. _"They couldn't get your signature programed in it though. You've done a damn good job of keeping yourself off their radar."_ I smirked at the technogeek's comment. It wasn't that I was good at keeping myself off the radar, I just knew how to delete anything they got on me before they had a chance to analyze it.

"What's that?" Fish inquired after I dropped on of the belts on reflex even though the shock wasn't quite as bad as it could be. I knew it was only this mild because it wasn't actually turned on yet.

"A Specter Deflector for you and Ben. You'll need to go ahead and put them on." I didn't even bother hoping she wouldn't ask why. She ALWAYS asked why. It was actually pretty smart to ask why before agreeing to anything, you never knew exactly what you could be agreeing to otherwise.

"Why? Won't that hurt you?" What'd I tell you?

"Yeah, but you're both going to need it soon. Besides," I flipped back to my human form and picked the dropped belt back up "it doesn't react as badly in my human form," Actually, it wasn't reacting at all since it didn't have anyone to protect at the moment.

"Let me guess, you'll avoid the question if I try to ask why, won't you?"

"Yeah, pretty much." She sent me a glare that could only be rivaled by one from Sam and put on the belt while Ben did the same with the one I had yet to pull out of the container.

We finished our walk back in a silence I was glad for since it would make it easier for me to react if I heard anyone, or anything, trying to make a sneak attack.

There was a cannon shot in the air as we finally started climbing up into the Cornucopia. I had ten minutes to get this over with, and that was if I was lucky.

I lead them to the portal and they both just stared at it. "Here, take this." I took the bag off my bag and handed it to Ben since Fish already had a bag of her own. "It's full of supplies, you'll probably need them since I don't know how long you'll be in there."

"Where exactly does this lead?" Fished asked as she stared at the swirling greens of the portal, a knife in one hand on the defensive.

"It's a portal to the Ghost Zone. It's your only way out of here. Don't take you're Specter Deflectors off once you're inside, they're your main defense. And keep your pendants in sight, most ghosts will leave you alone if they know you're under my protection." There was a series of nods from both of them as I continued with my impromptu speech as to what they needed to do. "Don't shoot unless you're shot at first and only interact with them if they're constantly changing age or look like a giant talking yeti. You need to find a ghost called clockwork, he's the one that'll constantly shift between being a child, young adult and an old man. Got it?"

"And what do we do if we run low on supplies before we find this Clockwork guy?" Fish was thinking ahead while Ben just listened silently.

"Find another portal back to Earth. But don't do that unless you have to, there's no guarantee as to what time you'll end up at. You could come back to the same time you left or you could end up hundreds, even thousands, of years off. Clockwork and the two man made portals are the only ways you can be certain to end up where you mean to." I could hear footsteps running through the forest, I needed to get this over with soon or they'd die right here.

"Anything else we need to know?" Ben finally came out of his silence.

"Yeah, if you come across a couple of humans in a ship looking thing, you can trust them to help you out." They both nodded.

"What do we do now?" Fish drew her eyes from the portal to me.

"Just walk in. You need to do it soon. The other tribute is getting a little too close to comfort." She nodded before they both entered the portal.

There was a few minutes of silence before the cannon shots finally filled the air. I could only hope the Game Makers had been forced to declare them dead after they lost track of their trackers.

It was just me and one other mystery guy now.

It was almost time to finish this once and for all.

* * *

_Wow... I thought I'd be able to get another five chapters out of this... The story is saying no to that... There's likely only going to be three chapters after this._

_Comments and feedback are welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	17. Chapter 17

_**Chapter 17**_

* * *

"So you're the ghost kid, huh? I never would have thought it'd be some one from District 12." The voice sounded from behind me, but I managed to whip around and come face to face with the last remaining tribute before he's even finished talking. It was Tamaki who'd managed to survive this long, and it wasn't too hard to figure out why when his grip on his bow was that of an expert. He'd probably been taught how to shoot when he was young and the skill just kept improving from there. "Then again I never would have thought someone from District 12 would ever make it this far."

"We fight off ghost invasions on a regular basis. I think all of us know how to survive by now." Sure, he might be able to survive out here, but one day in Amity Park and he'd be a goner. The only reason there had yet to be a winner was that this ability to survive when the shit hits the fan was only picked up by Amity Park's residents within the past year or so.

"I wonder what they'll do without you around to save them." He pulled the string back on his bow. He knew it wouldn't be hard to get out of the way, he was just toying with me now.

I let the ghostly energy pool around my hands, though I hoped beyond hope I wouldn't be forced to use it. "It's too bad we'll never find out, isn't it?"

The arrow flew from the bow with expert aim. Had he been from any other District, I would have suspected him of hunting illegally. I wouldn't have blamed him, there have been a few times when I've gone out to get something when money was running tighter than it should have been. I reacted without a second thought, turning intangible as it was faster than just jumping out of the way. As much as I wanted to give him a fair chance, I couldn't risk him actually getting the best of me. I have a duty and I'll be damned if something like this will pull me from it.

"I really hate to break it to you, but that's not going to stop me." A part of me wanted him to just give up. I don't know why, it was really no better to fight a person who's not even trying.

"Really, ghost child? Perhaps this will." Shit. Skulker was back.

"Wow, this day just keeps getting better and better. Now I get the fun of kicking your ass as well." There was a fake smile and the sarcasm was more the dripping in my words.

"Then allow me to make it even better." He grabbed Tamaki and held tight. "His life for your pelt." So the one time this guy actually gets a half-way decent idea, it's when I have to kill his bait anyway.

It was then that I realized I was faced with another dilemma. I could either let Skulker have his fun with Tamaki, or I could kill the last remaining tribute himself.

Be Dan, or be even more like Dan. Excellent choices, I know.

Skulker slowly dragged one of his blades down the length of the boy's arm, obviously pleased by the small outcry of pain it caused. Then it hit me what Skulker planned to do if I let him have the boy.

He wouldn't just outright kill him, he'd make it as slow and painful as possible.

My original two choices changed. I could be Dan, or I could show some form of mercy.

I could let Skulker make his death painful and slow, or I could take his life myself and make it quick and hopefully painless.

"Forgive me." I muttered under my breath, my mind already made up. I hated this. I more than hated this. I was supposed to be saving lives, not ending them!

My hand rose up on auto-pilot, the energy dancing around my hand was a little bright then normal. It was stronger than normal. I couldn't risk using my normal energy levels, I wasn't going to risk making this kid feel more pain than he really had to.

The blast left my hand and a tear escaped my eye as it hit the final tribute.

I had won the damned Games, I was also a killer.

I may have shown mercy in some way, but I was still a killer.

Was I really any better than Dan?

* * *

_NO! We're almost at the end! D: I think I've really become attached to this story... At this rate there may be another Hunger Games/DP crossover at some point in time... :P_

_Comments and feedback are welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	18. Chapter 18

I was frozen in place, my hand still raised from the deadly blast when I heard the hovercrafts approaching.

That sound is what knocked me out of my trance.

I turned to Skulker who had now retreated, and all hell broke loose with in the minute it took for the hovercraft to arrive. I went ballistic on the ghost hunter.

Suffice it to say he will have to be rebuilt bolt by bolt once he manages to pull his ghostly form itself back together.

There was a sting in my arm, as if they were trying to remotely sedate me. You'd think with my secret being out in the open they'd know it'll take more than that to bring me down. I don't blame them for being scared though; if I can do that to a ghost when I get pissed it's probably safe to assume I can do one whole hell of a lot more damage to a human.

I glared daggers at the approaching hovercraft and whoever was on it. It was because of those fucking Capitol people that I had to play these damn Games. It's because of the Capitol people that my secret is out in the open. It's because of the Capitol that I had to take a life.

There was another sting in my arm, this one actually made me woozy for a second or two. They didn't realize that I could probably withstand their strongest sleep meds if I really wanted to. I did soften my glare a little though, enough that it was apparently deemed safe to approach me. I didn't want them realizing just how immune I was to most of their stuff.

You can't live within the poverty of District 12 and not build up a damn good immune system. Add that to a ghost half and thousands of fights and you get one practically indestructible halfa.

_You're not indestructible, Danny. Just let them bring you back to health._ And there goes Sam, practically reading my thoughts.

"Why should I Sam? These people don't do anything worth commending. I ought to just fly back home and show them what a good person does myself!

_Daniel James Fenton! I see the state you're in! Don't you dare try coming back home until you've gotten yourself fixed up!_ I didn't really like the idea of sticking around, but I figured it'd be easier to escape a couple of Capitol officials than it would be to escape the wrath of Sam.

"Fine. But just because I'm not running off, that doesn't mean I won't be a royal pain in the ass."

_And this is why I love you._ I smirked at the comment as the hover car finally got close enough and began to pull me up out of the arena. _If it makes you feel any better, we found Fish and Ben. I'm still trying to figure out why the hell you teamed up with Ben, but I love Fish. She may end up my adopted sister at this rate._ I actually laughed at that comment.

"Don't get too attached too soon. You know they may not be staying very long." I cut myself off there, deciding not to go any farther with this conversation right now. If officials realized Ben and Fish were still alive, they might hunt them down and throw us all back in the arena. We need to wait at least a month or so before letting their survival become publically known.

The officials on the car tried to hold me down, but they quickly retreated when I let my eyes become their ghostly green entirely. They were reduced to asking questions and relying on what little of a signal my tracker would give them in my ghost form when it became apparent that they were not going to be allowed to touch me without some consequence.

I fought tooth and nail against everything they tried to do, whether it was take some tests or simply get me to drink some water. I didn't even power down until I was in the victor's living quarters and I had my stylist next to me.

"You need to eat, Danny." Davalinn was the one person I let into my quarters without letting them leave with some form of physical damage. I don't know why I was so violent, but I wanted to make nearly every asshole in the Capitol pay for what they made me do.

I sighed. "Fine. But I don't want anything too fancy." I could have anything I wanted and then some, but I was hell bent on not eating anything different from what I did before the Games. I shouldn't be allowed these luxuries after what I did. I should be punished, not praised, for the life I took. How could I ever face these people again? Even as a hero, I had taken a life.

"It's not your fault, you know." My stylist turned friend sat beside me on my bed once more with the bread that'd been delivered by an Avox.

I ignored to comment. It was my fault. I didn't have to take his life. Hell, Tamaki should have been allowed a few fair swipes at me for killing his friends in such a brutal way earlier in the Games. This wasn't fair. I shouldn't have won by taking a life.

The violent streak in me tried to make another appearance. I nearly let myself lash out at Davalinn, but a sudden image of Dan popped into my head and stopped me. This was yet another way I could head down the path to becoming that monster. I had to keep my head on straight or I'd lose the one battle I feared losing the most.

I sighed once more, making up my mind. "Tell them I'm ready for my interview." The sooner I got out of here, the sooner I could go back to being the hero and start to repaying the country as a whole for the lives that I not only lost but took myself.

It was going to be slow, but I couldn't let myself stay here and mope. The longer I was here, the closer I came to becoming Dan.

* * *

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	19. Chapter 19

"I'm sure we're all dying to know, what is it like knowing your secret is out in the open?" I still couldn't remember this idiot's name. I couldn't think of a response that might actually sound rational. The witty banter that usually rolled off my tongue was not there. The Box Ghost could have come up with better responses than I could.

"Danny?" The man with the rainbow hair was trying to get my attention as I just stared off into space, trying to find a response. I know I had said I was ready for my interviews, but I had thought that even if rational thought left my mind, I'd still have my smart remarks to fall back on.

Where the hell was Skulker, or Ember when I needed them? A distraction was what I needed most, not some pointless interview.

I looked over the crowd. I don't know why, I guess I was just hoping beyond hope I'd find some sort of comfort hiding in the mass of insanely dressed people. The closest thing to family or a real friend that I had was my stylist. It didn't help much, but seeing a familiar face with an encouraging smile helped me to urge words out of my mouth.

"I don't know what to think of it yet. All I can say is this: Mom, dad, I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I had my reasons for keeping this a secret." There an answer. Not only that, but it also made sense and didn't let loose the war I was raging inside. If I made it through this fully sane, I'd be damn lucky.

"At least you'll get to talk this through with them. Why did you keep it a secret? Did anyone know before this?" It seemed like every single question anyone shot at me had something to do with my powers. Why? Was the universe just trying to make me pay for taking a human life I'd vowed to protect?

"My two best friends, Sam and Tucker, knew because they were there the day of the accident. I didn't get much of a choice in telling them. Once they saw the first transformation when I walked out of the portal, they wouldn't let me try to pretend my ghost half didn't exist. They bugged the hell out of me until I came clean. My sister, Jazz knew too. She found out on her own a few months after the accident. I guess I was just careless at some point, she never did tell me how she found out." I paused, amazed at myself for getting that out.

It took a few seconds of complete silence to remind me that I still had another question to answer. "As for why I kept it a secret? I didn't want anyone in the line of fire. My enemies would, and have, tried to use those that knew my secret against me. I've had a frootloop try to turn Jazz against me. Ember has used my feeling for Sam against me more than once. And Tuck's been kidnapped a few times. It's amazing it didn't happen more often." I took a breath, feeling the need to get this next bit out now before anyone tried something stupid. "The world knows my secret now, but I am practically begging all of you to stay the hell out of the line of fire. It's not fun. This shit is my problem, don't risk yourselves getting involved." I knew that wasn't going to do a whole lot to slow the flow of problems I was going to have now, but I still held on to the hope it might keep some of the more sane people out of the way.

I don't know what I'd do if I lost another human life.

"It's amazing how much you care for the people you don't even know." He stopped, and I knew where the next question was headed even before the words left his mouth. "What did it feel like to take a life?"

How do I answer that honestly? I hated it, but there was a tiny part of me that was exhilarated to use my powers in that way. The part of me that Dan still resides in.

"It reminded me how much power I really have. None of you really know what I fight against every day. You see the ghost attacks, but no one sees the internal fights. The struggle to keep myself level headed. I've seen what could happen if I let the power go to my head." I was shaking, trying to keep my emotions under control as much as I could. "You haven't seen the damage one little thing can do. If any of you cheat on a test, you get in trouble and that's all there is to it. Hell, you might even get away with it if you're damn good at it. Me? I cheat on one stupid test and I lose everything. My friends, family, even Mr. Lancer. They all die." My head was down cast, my eyes switching back and forth between blue and green. "Don't you dare even start to think being the hero is all good. It's a living hell that you just keep going through because if you don't, you'll end up doing more damage than anyone can handle."

I felt myself shutting down mentally. I didn't want to talk anymore, my wall to keep the world outside was coming up and now only those closest to me would have any hope of breaking through.

I think the host tried to ask a few more questions, but I couldn't answer them, I barely registered the fact that he even asked them to begin with. My mind was clouded with countless thoughts all running together in such a way I couldn't make sense of any of it.

I'll probably be glad Jazz wants to be psychiatrist when I get home. For the first time, I might actually go to her willingly. I sure as hell need it.

There was a buzz of commotion that I didn't care to make sense of. My guess was it was all people trying to get me to answer something or another, but I couldn't handle it anymore. All I did was oblige to the request of transforming once more before I was allowed to leave the stage and go back to my quarters.

Then it hit me that I was done with these damned interviews, at least the ones in the Capitol. I could go home.

Would everyone still think of me the same way now that I had been in the Games? Now that they knew my secret?

Would I still be seen as the hero now that I had taken a life?

* * *

_This is a bit later than I would have liked...but I did get it out! :D_

_I have decided to write a sequel once I finish this, so be happy! I demand it! :D_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D (...wow...I'm using that smiley a lot... :P)_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	20. Chapter 20

There was a brief stop in every district to run through some bullshit speech written by the Capitol before I managed to make it home. I can't remember the words now, even though I said them a dozen times. My mind was never alert enough to focus on the words and what I was actually saying. I doubt I would have noticed it if they had given me a different speech every day.

I had a thousand thoughts running rampant through my mind, but only a few that I could catch long enough to make sense of.

I was almost home. I could see my friends and family again. I could see Sam.

But with that came the inevitable explanations and lectures that were bound to be swapped back and forth between my parents and I.

These next few days were going to be both the very think I've dreamed of the past two moths and the hell I've been dreading the most.

The train pulled into the station, and I was mobbed as soon as those doors opened. I could see my family and friends not too far off, but through the sea of people, it would take ages to reach them, much to long for my likings. The crowd was no surprise, I had a lot drawing people towards me; not only was my secret out, but I was also the first victor in District 12.

An old song popped into my head as I swarmed the crowds. It was from before the Dark Days, but the Games had kept it from dying out.

_I feel irrational, so confrontational._

_To tell the truth, I am getting away with murder._

_And is it possible, to never tell the truth?_

_Cause the reality is I'm getting away with murder._

I suddenly understood why all the victors seemed to know that song. It was true, we were getting away with murder just because we were in the Games. Normal people could face death themselves for murder, but victors got away with it whether we wanted to or not.

There's a reason most victors either lose their minds or bury themselves in drugs or drink once they get back home.

That same verse played in my head over and over as I fought against the tides of the crowds to get to the people that really meant something to me. I was halfway through it before I remembered my secret wasn't much of a secret anymore and just phased through wave after wave of the citizens from District 12.

I reappeared in front of my family and grabbed Sam before anything else in my life had a chance to get seriously fucked up. I kissed her, not really giving a damn that we were in a public place, surrounded by thousands of people with Tucker and everyone else making lovebird remarks. Sam didn't resist, she just seemed to melt in my arms, deepening the kiss and moving her arms around me.

It was hard to pull away, but I could tell if I didn't this was going to go places no one else needed to see.

I turned to my parents and saw the questions right beneath the surface. I spoke before they had a chance to. "Can we exchange lectures and explanations after we get home, please?" They nodded and after seeing how hard it was to get to them, I transformed and grabbed my parents, Sam and Tucker before flying us back home.

Fish and Ben were waiting when we flew back through the roof. "Well, look who's back." Fish had one of her normal smartass smirks on her face as she greeted me. Then I noticed something off about her.

"Fish, what happened to your eye?" Damn it, they'd gotten attacked!

"This? Just how much would you laugh at me if I told you I lost it from a paper cut?" Paper cut?

I just gave her a quizzical look and she laughed before explaining. "Some Box Ghost got a lucky shot in. The corner of one of his boxes left a good cut on my eye." ...wow...old Boxy actually did some damage… I never thought I'd see the day. "It's screwed my aim up a little though. I can still hit moving targets, but I'm relying more on muscle memory now than anything." She shrugged. "Not a bad price for surviving the Games though, most people get out with more damage than this."

Fish backed off when Ben came forward. As he waved I noticed he hadn't gotten out of the Ghost Zone scot-free either. He didn't even bother waiting for me to ask what happened. "Someone called Technus would not shut the hell up. Some how, he managed to take out a few fingers with a back razor. How the hell is that even possible?" His left hand had only an index finger and thumb now, but what Fish said was true- it really wasn't a bad price for surviving the Hunger Games.

I was still going to have to have a conversation with those two...a rather violent one….

I laughed as more pleasant conversation occurred between my arena allies and the people I'd only recently been reunited with. Mom and dad let me get away with this for a while, but I knew it wasn't going to last very long. They probably wanted an explanation.

The conversation finally slowed to a stop, and I got ready for what was to come. I turned to my parents. "What do you want to know?"

Mom didn't miss a beat, jumping in as soon as the question was asked. "How did this happen, Danny?" There was no need to ask what she was talking about, the only thing she cared about right now was my ghost half and understanding it.

"I was inside the ghost portal when it opened. The running theory is that the spectral energy combined with the pure shock of the electricity caused ectoplasm to attach itself to my DNA. For future reference, you may want to move the on button to the outside of the portal if you ever take it apart for something." I gave a nervous laugh before I continued on with my story. I started at the beginning and ran through everything that had happened.

They listened patiently until the end. Then dad spoke up. "Why didn't you tell us?" The hard question to answer.

"I tried to at first, but life had other plans and I'd always get interrupted. Then it became of fear of not being accepted, you are ghost hunters after all and I was the ghost you were the most hell bent on catching. Once I knew you'd accept me…" I trailed off, I didn't really know the reason why I still didn't tell them after that. I had pretty much bull shitted my way through the last interview in the Capitol.

"His hero complex kicked in after that." Sam filled in from beside me. "This idiot seems to think he's invincible and doesn't need help as it is. Then he got too worried about hurting other people just because they knew the truth." Damn...she had a better understanding of my mind than I did. What she said made sense and sounded right. "Add those two things together, and you get why he still didn't tell you."

That answered the question perfectly, and I didn't even realize it was the answer.

Sam playfully smacked me upside the head. "Some one cares too much about other people to help himself every once in a while."

"I do help myself!" I retorted, though I knew in the back of my mind it wasn't true.

"And that's exactly why Tucker and I had to practically drag the truth out of you in the beginning and you still don't tell us everything!"

"Would you shut up if I admitted you were right?" Please? I don't need that lecture right now on top of everything else.

"For now, but you do realize this isn't the end of it, right?"

"Yes Sam." I did know that. Now that she knew she was right, I really wasn't going to hear the end of it until they knew more about my life than I did.

The conversation moved away from my powers after that, moving to news of what had been happening since I left, then Ben spoke up from the corner where he'd spent most of the time in silence.

"When can we go home?"

* * *

_My mind won't shut up about the sequel to this now that I've decided there will be one... You may very well see several early updates because of that... :P_

_OH! And I don't own the song lyrics in this chapter!_

_Comments and feedback are welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	21. Chapter 21

"When can we go home?" Ben asked a damn good question. When could he and Fish go home?

I gave the only answer I could. "As soon as possible."

He gave me an odd look. "I need to go home." His next words were soft, I couldn't tell if he meant for anyone to hear them or not. "I never got to tell her the truth."

No one asked who he was talking about, it was an unspoken agreement to let him tell us when and if he wanted to.

The issue of getting them home was weighing on my mind heavily. If I took them home now, there would be more time for the Capitol officials to come up with a plan for revenge once they found out, but weren't they going to have that anyway? Was there really any point in keeping Ben and Fish hidden longer when all it would do is put both them and their families through more grief than they deserved.

There was silence in the house, broken up by only a few mandatory broadcasts and reruns of the Games, for hours before I finally came to a decision.

"Do you want to go home now?" It was a stupid question and the answer was more than obvious, but it still felt right to ask first.

There were identical nods from both Ben and Fish. "I can take you home now, but you need to remember that the sooner you reappear, the sooner the shit is going to hit the fan for all of us. The Capitol will be more than pissed to see three survivors came out of the arena."

"The Capitol may be full of idiots, but they aren't completely blind. They'll figure out we're still alive eventually anyway, we might as well get some time at home first." Ben just nodded in agreement to Fish's statement.

"Okay, but it's going to be a rather long and uncomfortable flight." I was going to have to fly them myself, there was no other way I could be sure to keep us all off the radar.

My mom looked a little worried, I figured it was just because she wasn't too fond of me leaving so soon after I made it back. "Mom, I'll be fine." I gave her a small smile.

"I don't think you can get out, Danny. When your secret came out, your father and I were told to either put up a ghost shield around the town or face death. If it falls because of anything short of a ghost attack, we'll lose our lives and god only knows what they'd do to you."

There were a few minutes of dejected silence before Ben spoke up from the corner. "Quick question. Does the shield end when it meets with the ground, or does it go through that as well?"

"It stops when it hits the ground, but I don't see how that helps anything." Mom responded nearly instantly.

Fish had a knowing smirk on her face. "You found a loop hole."

"Would someone care to tell the clueless one what the hell the two of you are talking about?" Tucker snickered at my comment, probably because I just called myself clueless. Yes, I am clueless, I'll admit it.

"Let's work this through the slow way, okay?" She had a mocking tone in her voice. "What can go through the ground?"

"Oh." Duh. I supposed to just turn intangible and go through the ground long enough to get us outside the shield.

Sam shook her head. "I swear Danny, sometimes I wonder how the hell you survived in general, much less through the Games." She stuck her tongue out at me playfully.

"Oh, shut up." I remarked, sending a fake glare her way.

"Will you two lovebirds get a room?" Tucker...he shall pay for that…

"What? Are you jealous of what you don't have, Tuck?" Sam retorted, causing the red hatted boy to grumble to himself. He really isn't as good at flirting as he seems to think he is.

As if to further infuriate him, Sam pulled me down and kissed me long and hard, and just like at the train station, I knew this had to be cut off before it started going farther than anyone needs to see.

It's amazing what some pent up hormones and repressed emotions can do in such a short time.

Tuck moved to Fish's side and put an arm around her. "She agrees with the whole lovebird thing, don't you?" The glare he received for that was priceless.

In a fraction of a second, Fish had twisted herself out of Tucker's friendly hold and pinned his arm behind his back. She leaned close to his ear as she spoke. "Touch me again. I fucking dare you." I had managed to forget just how scary the small girl could be when she wanted to be. Fish released her hold on him some and Sam burst out laughing.

I shrugged and shook my head as Tucker was finally fully released. "And that is why I pray to god the two of you don't ever plan anything together." I addressed both Fish and Sam.

"Might be a little too late for that one, ghost boy." Sam smirked along with her comment and I was suddenly slightly afraid of what those two were plotting.

"Okay… Ignoring the possible threat on my life, when are you taking them home?" It was clear Tuck didn't want those two planning together anymore than I did, hence the sudden shift in conversation.

"We'll leave the day after tomorrow and I should be back the following night." I could probably make the trip and back within twelve hours if I was on my own, but carrying someone with me, much less two, was going to slow me way down.

Everyone gradually dispersed and went off to go do their own things. Well, everyone except Ben who stood in the same corner as he'd been when I got home until Sam left to go help my mom with dinner. He finally approached me after what looked like a lot of internal debating.

He didn't' waste time getting to the point. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you and Sam meet?" I didn't have a clue why that would have anything to do with anything, but I saw no harm in answering.

"We've been best friends for years. We were pretty dense there for a while when we started falling for each other." I gave a short laugh. "It's rather pathetic that it took the prospect of a fight to the death to get us to admit our feelings for each other."

Ben looked a little lost in thought, as if considering something for a minute before muttering thanks and walking off still lost in thought.

I caught sight of Sam in the doorway between the kitchen and living room and knew she had heard the exchange. "What was that about?" I asked her since she seemed to have a knack for seeing things a little more clearly than me whenever it didn't involve ghosts.

Instead of giving me an answer, Sam just shook her head in mock disappointment. "I'm sure you'll figure it out soon enough, oh Clueless One."

* * *

_It's not technically late, so hahaha! :P_

_And I half-lied when I said there would be a sequel... Inspiration struck so this will likely become a series of three or four stories. :D_

_Comments and feedback are welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	22. Chapter 22

The crack of dawn rudely awoke me from the first real sleep I've had in months, both before and after the Games. However, once I got over being torn from my blissful slumber, I realized it was probably a good thing if I wanted to be back home by the next night.

Sam had curled up next to me sometime during the night, and as much as I wanted to take her with me, I knew I couldn't. Trying to fly with both Ben and Fish would be pushing it as it was, I wouldn't be able to stay airborne if I tried taking her too.

That, and I couldn't risk getting her in trouble if I got caught.

I tried to move without disturbing her, but I had hardly moved an inch when she woke up.

I gave her a smile and told her I had to leave. It nearly broke my heart to see the look on her face, but Sam knew I had to go. She reluctantly let go after practically attacking my lips, making damn sure that last kiss would really matter just in case there weren't any more, just like right before I left for the Games.

Fish and Ben were already waiting at the door when I finally made my way out of my room.

"Ready to go?" They both nodded in response. They looked tired, but I couldn't tell if it was because they were up so early or if it was from a sleepless night.

I grabbed on to both of them and took off, maintaining invisibility as we phased through the roof.

Getting outside the shield was simple, but I had underestimated just how much energy it was going to take to fly two people. I wound up having to stop and rest twice just to get to Eleven.

We finally made it to the outskirts of the fishing district after what felt like forever and Fish directed me to her house. I didn't want to risk knocking on the front door and make our arrival known to the general public, so we phased through the roof and landed in the living room before returning to visibility.

Looking around that one room alone, I saw the living conditions between Twelve and Eleven were nearly the same. The floors and roofs looked to be a little more reliable, but that was the only noticeable difference.

Fish's parents were stunned when we appeared, but that didn't last long and they engulfed the poor girl in a bone crushing hug. Her dad was the first to notice me.

"You bought her back." That was all the recognition I got for a while, but who could blame them? They thought they'd lost both daughters, but now they had at least one of them back home. It would never fill the hole in their heart from the loss of their younger child, but it would help with their healing.

There was a sharp knock on the door and I'd only just turned myself, Ben and Fish invisible when the Peacekeepers barged in, some sort of scanner in their hands.

What appeared to be the head of the Peacekeepers came forward and started speaking before even fully acknowledging the two people who were actually visible. "We have detected an ectoplasmic energy signature on the premises. If you are harboring a ghost, you have exactly one chance to give them up."

Fish's parents looked stunned to say the least, but they seemed to recover quickly enough.

"Sweetie, you don't think she's still here, do you?"

I still didn't know who they were talking about when the patriarch of the family responded to his wife. "I don't know. It's possible, maybe you should try to talk to her."

The mother nodded, then turned to face a random spot in the air. "Genny, sweetie, if you're still here, you need to move on. I know you don't want to leave us, but it's time. We'll see you again soon, don't worry." It took me a second to realize they were trying to pretend the ectoenergy was coming from Fish's dead sister, not me. It took a sharp jab in the side for me to realize what I needed to do in order to maintain that illusion.

It was difficult, but I managed to shift back to my human form without dropping my invisibility, but I managed it. I couldn't be sure, but if I had to guess, I would have said that being in my human form alone would be enough to drop off of their charts.

Thankfully, it did get me off of their scanners. "Boss? The signals gone. It may have just been the daughter after all."

The head nodded, before turning his attention back to Fish's parents. "Don't let me see any readings again." With that, he turned and left, the other Peacekeepers following behind.

I waited a few seconds after the door slammed shut to return to the visible spectrum. "That was a little too close for comfort. We probably need to get going soon." There were nods from everyone else in the room. "I know you can't do this forever, but try to keep Fish's return a secret for as long as you can. The longer this stays off the Capitol's radar, the better."

Fish came up to me. "Keep yourself out of trouble, okay? And I don't know whether I'm glad to say this or not, but I have a feeling this isn't the last you'll see of me." I knew what she meant, if we ever saw each other again, the odds were against it being under happy circumstances.

I sent her a small smile. "You keep yourself out of trouble, too."

She just gave me one of her odd little smirks. "Since when have I ever gotten in trouble?" I laughed before waving goodbye and taking off into the sky, heading for the tenth District.

The flight to District Ten was much easier now that I only had to worry about keeping one other person airborne along with me. The trip was silent, but it only took about half the time it had taken me to get to Eleven.

When I flew over the fence into Ben's home, he told me he wasn't going home first and directed me to some one else's home.

I phased through the roof and was met with the sight of a girl about our age sitting by the lone window, looking rather dejected. You'd think her best friend had died from the look in her eyes.

Ben stepped forward a little timidly. "Asa?"

The girl by the window turned slowly, as if not daring to believe the voice she'd just heard. As soon as she saw Ben, her eyes lit up, the sorrow gone in an instant.

Then I realized she really did think her best friend had died.

"Ben!" I stood off to the side awkwardly as she ran to embrace him in a hug.

"Getting a little clingy there?"

"Shut the hell up. You disappeared on me, now you a get a hug and you're going to like it." She clung on to him for a little longer than any friend should and that's when it finally clicked in my mind.

As I saw them interact, I saw them fighting with the same line that had given Sam and I problems for the longest time. They had been best friends for years, and now they were carefully dancing on that fine line between the best of friends and something more.

That's why Ben had asked how I met Sam. He was trying to decide whether or not to keep walking that fine line.

Now that I saw it in action, I realized just how much of a right Sam had for calling me clueless.

I backed off and waved goodbye to Ben before heading home. Just as I phased back through the roof and outside, I heard Ben mutter a few little words.

"I love you, Asa."

* * *

_First order of business, the girl's name is prnounced Ace-uh, not Asia or Ass-uh or anything else._

_Just had to get that out there, I know how people butcher that name as it is my own... :P (and yes, people really do pronouce it like that,,,why, I will never know...)_

_Secondly, this is the second to last chapter for this story, though I'll go ahead and tell you the next one will be "Blood Roses". :)_

_Comments and feedback are as welcome as always! :D_

* * *

_Invisible One_


	23. Chapter 23

"Did you finally figure it out, Danny?" I had barely gotten back inside the house before she asked that.

"Figure what out?" There were probably a million different things she could have been talking about.

"Just how clueless you were." She smirked at me.

Well, that narrows it down to only a few things. "Do you mean how clueless I was about us or how clueless I was about Ben?"

"Both."

I laughed as I wrapped my arms around her. "How did you figure him out so easily?"

Sam gave me one of those "are you freaking kidding me?" looks before answering. "It was written all over his face, Clueless One." She shook her head. "I can't believe even you missed it."

"You don't call me clueless for no reason." I smirked down at her.

"You can say that again." She muttered before pulling me down for a kiss.

* * *

Two months later, there was a huge special on the news and I knew why even before it started. It had finally gotten out that Ben and Fish made it home after all, and now there was gonna be hell to pay for all three of us.

No one said we were going to have to pay for it, but it was strongly implied.

I wasn't sure whether or not to be glad that their most effective (and most likely) form of punishment couldn't be rolled out until next year's Games.


	24. Just For the Record

_I noticed a drop in readers between this story and the next one. I don't know if people have lost interest or just never saw the first chapters of "Blood Roses."_

_So, just for the record, the next installment of this yet to be titled series, is up and can be found here:_

_ www. fanfiction .net s/8701302/1/Blood-Roses_

_Delete the spaces on that._

_I hope this helps anyone who didn't see Blood Roses go up. :)_

_Invisible One_


End file.
